Men wearing a gold-plated watch or glasses

A question about a man wearing a gold-plated watch or glasses, in which Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyya answered that there is no objection when the plating is mere colour or so slight that no gold could be recovered, and that it is forbidden when the gold is substantial enough that gold would be recovered if the item were melted down, so as to steer clear of the jurists' disagreement. ¹

The questioner asked: what is the ruling on a man wearing a watch or glasses plated or gilded with gold? ¹

Dar al-Ifta began by explaining that sharia forbids men to wear or use gold, by the hadith of Ali in Abu Dawud that the Prophet ﷺ took silk in his right hand and gold in his left and said these two are forbidden to the men of his community, with Ibn Majah's addition 'and lawful for their women', and the hadith of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari in Ahmad and al-Tirmidhi that wearing silk and gold was forbidden to the men of the community and permitted to its women; and by the consensus reported by al-Nawawi in his commentary on Muslim (14/65) that gold rings are permitted to women and forbidden to men. It said the text concerns pure gold or gold as the main material of the item, whereas where gold is subordinate or mere plating the jurists differ according to their view of the reason for the prohibition; it defined plating and gilding from Ibn Manzur's Lisan al-Arab and al-Jamal's gloss on Sharh al-Manhaj (2/257), gilding being the melting of gold or silver and coating a thing with it. ¹

Dar al-Ifta then set out the schools' positions. The Hanafis agree that men may wear what is gilded with gold when nothing is recovered from it on exposure to fire, while if something is recovered Abu Hanifa and Muhammad in one report permit it and Abu Yusuf and Muhammad in another report dislike it, as al-Kasani says in Bada'i' al-Sana'i' (5/133) that vessels gilded with gold or silver water from which nothing is recovered may be used by consensus, since gilding counts for nothing, and Ibn Nujaym in al-Bahr al-Ra'iq (8/211). The Malikis forbid an item in which the gold equals or exceeds the base and dislike one in which it is less, as al-Dardir says in al-Sharh al-Kabir (1/63–64) and al-Dasuqi in his gloss (1/64) that a small amount of gold is subordinate to the silver, so wearing such a ring is disliked. The Shafi'is in their sounder view and the Hanbalis permit gilding that is slight and yields nothing on exposure to fire, and forbid it when something is recovered, since ostentation and the grieving of the poor are then present, as al-Khatib al-Shirbini says in Mughni al-Muhtaj (1/136–137) that the reason is a compound of tying up the two precious metals, ostentation and grieving the poor, and al-Buhuti in Kashshaf al-Qina' (1/282) that gilding whose colour has changed and which yields nothing on exposure to fire is permitted because the reason for prohibition has gone. ¹ It noted that the Prophet allowed a little gold that is subordinate to something else, by the hadith of Mu'awiya in Ahmad and Abu Dawud that he forbade wearing gold except in small pieces, with Ali al-Qari's explanation in Mirqat al-Mafatih (7/2802) that small pieces means things like the fittings on weapons, silver rings and the borders of garments. ¹

Dar al-Ifta said the view chosen for the fatwa is that men may not wear an item plated with gold when the gold in it is substantial enough that gold would be recovered if it were melted, so as to steer clear of the jurists' disagreement, avoiding disagreement being recommended, as al-Suyuti says in al-Ashbah wa-l-Naza'ir (p. 136); whereas when the plating is a slight colour that yields nothing on exposure to fire and cannot be called gold, there is no objection because of its smallness. ¹ It concluded that there is no objection in sharia to men wearing a watch or glasses gilded or plated with gold when this is mere colour with no trace of gold, or a slight plating from which no gold would be recovered by removing it, but that wearing is forbidden when it is not mere colour but something substantial, such as a thick layer of gold over the watch or glasses, or when gold would be recovered if the item were melted down. ¹

Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyya published this fatwa on dar-alifta.org as no. 8966, dated 28 April 2026, in the category of dress and adornment, among the fatwas of the Grand Mufti Nazir Muhammad Ayyad. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.