Stretchy Clothing Exposing Skin in Prayer

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

Is prayer valid if the skin is visible through the stretched-out material of certain clothing?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Your prayers are valid.

It is highly unlikely for a garment which in its normal state completely covers the skin to be stretched so thin that the color of the skin beneath is clearly and manifestly apparent. [Tahtawi/Shurunbulali, Hashiyat Maraqi al-Falah]

Additionally, even if the garment does expose the color of the skin, it is again highly unlikely that the amount of skin exposed would go beyond 1/4th of that limb, which is the maximum exposure that the prayer would still be valid with. [Ibid.]

This is especially true since you declared that you suffer from misgivings (waswasa). The one who suffers from misgivings (waswasa) is required to ignore all doubts and only act on the reasonable surety of certainty. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch

Checked and approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani. 

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.