Question:

Just wanted to enquire if women are allowed to wear platinum rings. I looked on the site of Hadhrat Mufti Ebrahim Desai sb db, but there seems to be two different answers,

http://askimam.org/public/question_detail/17661
http://askimam.org/public/question_detail/22519

Would appreciae your help in this matter!

May Allah grant you barakah in your 'ilm and 'amal.

Answer:

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.

In principle women are allowed to beautify themselves with any item as long as there is no shar’i reason prohibiting them from that particular thing.

From the classical texts and their explanations from the fuqaha’ we understand that some restrictions have been applied. There are certain ornaments which are disliked from the side of Shariah.

Use of ornaments for males:

At the outset beautification has been kept restricted to women. This means that it is disliked for men to beautify themselves with ornaments like chain, bracelets or ring. The only exception for males is in regards to silver rings (see Fatawa al Hindiyyah (5/335) [1]

a.       The stipulation of wearing silver rings for males is at the level of “mubah” (permissible).

b.      It is sunnah for those males who are at a position of authority to wear silver rings to use it for “seals”.

c.       The ring must be worn in the modality of what males wear and not that of women (i.e. using two stones or three).

d.      The ring must not exceed 4.374 grams in weight.

e.       It is permissible to wear a ring which has been plated with silver.

Use of ornaments for females:

It is encouraged for women to adorn themselves with beauty. This may be by application of hina, clothing or ornaments.

It is permissible for women to use any metal for ornaments of beautification with the exception to the finger rings. Shaykh Mufti Rasheed Ahmed Gangohi rahimahullah clarifies that according to the Sharia there is no restriction on any type of metal in regards to general ornaments of women. In one question he was asked about using ornaments made from copper and brass, and he replied, “All types of ornaments are permissible for women”. In another answer when he was specifically asked about ornaments from metals other than gold and silver, he responded, “It is permissible for women to wear ornament from anything with the condition that it does not resemble the salient features of non muslim nations.” Yet in another question he mentioned permissibility of wearing glass bangles for women. (Ta’lifaat e Rasheediyyah Pg. 487)

Use of iron and other metals besides Gold and Silver for finger rings:

We have already mentioned the rules of rings for men above. Hereunder is the clarification on rings for women as ornaments.

The restrictions which follow apply to usage of rings worn on fingers. Ear-ring will follow the same ruling as any other ornament. It is disliked for women to get their lip, belly, or other parts of their bodies pierced as it is not a beautification of decent women.

It is my humble understanding that in this issue only rings from gold and silver are permissible for women. It is impermissible for women to adorn with rings from anything beside these two metals.

Contrary fataawa and further explanation:

Since the statements in most books of fiqh generally mention this prohibition singling out only four metals, i.e. copper, lead, iron and brass, many ulama’ opined that the prohibition itself is restricted to these metal. After careful reading of the texts we understand that although the prohibition being mentioned is being mentioned specifically with the names of these metal’s, yet the prohibition is not limited to them.

To understand the matter in entirety, one must know the reason of prohibition of rings made from iron and copper. The prohibition is mentioned directly in the hadeeth of Rasulullah salallahu ῾alayhi wasallam wherein a man was seen wearing a ring made from iron, to this Rasulullah salallahu ῾alayhi wasallam commented, ‘Why is it that I perceive the fragrance of the dwellers of hellfire?” Thereafter he came wearing a ring made of brass. Rasulullah salallahu ῾alayhi wasallam remarked, “Why is that I perceive fragrance of idolatry?”[2]

Having understood that the prohibition in hadeeth has been given for these two metal, ulama’ establish the causative factor for the prohibition. Once a causative factor is established, then wherever the cause will be found, the ruling of prohibition ought to be levied.

Allamah Ibn Abideen al Shaami rahimahullah explains,

“Hence it is known that wearing ring from gold (for men), iron and brass is haram. Therefore Jade ought to be included within it because idols are made from it. Hence it likens the alloy which has been mentioned in the Nass (text) and derived thereof.”[3]

Allamah Shaami rahimahullah has mentioned that the causative factor is any such item from which idols are made. In all such items, the same fragrance of idol ought to emanate. Moreover, similar causative factor ought to follow from iron, i.e. a metal which is the ornaments of the dwellers of hellfire. Hence any other alloy which uses iron as its component ought to be included as well.

Similarly, Imam Burhan al Deen al Hanafi rahimahullah mentions this deduction in his Muheet al Burhani,

“When the prohibition is established in regards to iron and brass, then it ought to be established in regards to alloy, because brass is derived from such alloys. Hence the fragrance of idols would emanate from it and that is the causative factor for the prohibition of wearing rings of brass as indicated by the hadeeth.”[4]

Assessment of these causative factors could entail two possibilities.

a.       The prohibition is being levied to the metals mentioned in the hadeeth including their derivatives and alloys.

b.      The prohibition applies to all the metals since they all share the similar quality of being used for ornamentation or molded into idols.

These metals are essentially iron and brass. While some ahadeeth categorically mention brass, there are other narrations which use the words alloy (شبه) instead. Brass itself is an alloy of copper and zinc. This also indicates towards the second possibility above, that the prohibition is perhaps toward metals and not restricted to mentioned metals.

Careful reading of the texts of the Fuqaha’ provided above and others, shows that they opted for the second possibility as well. The position is understood from a clear explanatory statement from Allama Tahawi rahimahullah who says in his al Mukhtasar,

“It is makruh to wear rings made from iron and that which is besides silver, except for gold (in case) for women specifically” [5]

From among contemporary fuqaha’, we see a similar explanation as well.

Addressing conclusively the issue of rings derived from metals other than Gold and Silver Mufti Abdur Raheem Laajpuri rahimahullah writes:

“It is makruh for women to wear rings made from metals other than Gold and Silver. Allamah Shaami rahimahullah mentions that, ‘It is mentioned in Jawhara that wearing rings made of iron, brass, copper and lead is makruh for men and women. Fatawa al Hindiya mentions that, ‘in Khujandi it says that wearing rings made from iron, brass, and lead are makruh for both males and females…” (Fatawa Raheemiyah 10/158)

Hadhrat Mufti Mahmud Hasan al Gangohi rahimahulla explains the ruling,

“ ‘A man must not adorn with gold or silver except for a ring, belt and sword ornaments from silver. (Kanz) … his statements “from silver” restricts entirely for males, (`ayni). (Hashiya al Shilbi 6/15’[6]

‘((A man must not adorn with gold or silver generally, except for a ring, belt and sword ornaments from it. i.e. from silver as long as beautification is not intended with it)). (Al Dur al Mukhtar)[7] The statement (A man must not adorn) means that he must not beautify. And the statement (as long as beautification is not intended with it) refers that the pronoun in (with it) refers to “ring” alone. This is because ornaments of sword and belt are solely for the reason of beautification and not something else as opposed to ring. The text of al-Kaafiya indicates towards this when it mentions “((except for the ring))  this is when beautification is not intended with it” (Radd al Muhtaar)[8] ’

‘Adorning with rings of gold and iron and brass is haram[9]…And wearing of rings from iron, brass, copper and lead is makruh for men and women’ (Radd al Muhtaar)[10]

‘A man or a woman should not wear rings from stones, brass, iron and others except for silver. And it is said that it is permissible to wear rings from stone. (Sukub al Anhar 2/536)[11]

From the above statements it is understood that wearing of rings from other metals is prohibited for both men and women. It is permissible for women to wear rings from gold and silver. As for men the adorning or beautification whether in the form of a ring or other ways is limited to specific quantity of silver only….” (Fataawa Mahmudiyyah 19/363)

From all the texts mentioned above, we understand that while at times fuqaha’ explicitly mention that rings other than gold and silver are not permissible, at other times they name alloys which were not explicitly mentioned in hadeeth. This shows that they levied the prohibition based on the causative factor mentioned above which essentially applies to all the metals with the exception of gold and silver.

After having understood the above discussion, we can address the issue in your query. Platinum (Pt) is a naturally occurring element normally described as the gray-white transition metal.[12] Rings made from platinum are normally made out of pure platinum metal and not alloys.[13] Hence it will fall under the same prohibition.

Platinum should not be confused with “White Gold”. White gold is an alloy of gold and at-least one other white metals such as silver, palladium, nickel or manganese.[14] White gold normally comes in 18kt, 14kt or 9kt. Therefore, it will be treated as a gold ring as long as the gold content is more than the other alloys, with the exception of 9kt.

In a 9kt white gold the gold content is only 37.5%. In such a 9kt ring we will have to look at the composition of the ring. The ring will take the ruling of the dominant metal in its composition. Hence if the dominant metal in it is silver, then the ring will be permissible. If the dominant metal is Palladium, then the prohibition of metal rings will apply to such a ring.

And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best

Faisal bin Abdul Hameed al-Mahmudi
www.fatwa.ca