Are Women Allowed to Wear Gold Jewellery?
Answered by Shaykh Abdurragmaan Khan
Question: Assalam alaykum,
Are women allowed to wear gold jewellery?
I have found a hadith that forbids it.
Answer: Wa alaykum al-Salam
The wearing of gold jewelry for females is permissible according all schools of jurisprudence. As for the hadith of Asma bint Yazid from the Messenger sallaLlahu alayhi wasallam who said, “Any woman that wears a necklace of gold will be made to wear a similar necklace of fire on the day of judgement.” [Abu Dawud], scholars had three approaches to it.
Abrogation
This view holds that gold was impermissible for males and females during the initial period of Islam. However, this ruling was abrogated and gold jewelry was then permitted for females. RasuluLlah sallaLlahu alayhi wasallam had gold and silk in his hands one day and then proclaimed, “these two are haram for the men of my ummah; permissible for the women of my ummah.”
Declaring the narration weak
Other scholars declared this narration weak. Weak narrations may not be used to establish law.
Interpretation
Another group of scholars interpreted the hadith to mean that any woman upon whose jewelry zakah has become compulsory, yet does not pay her zakah, will be made to wear similar jewelry of fire on the day of Judgement.
In short, gold is permissible for females and the apparent meaning of the hadith that you made reference to is not applicable for reasons mentioned above.
And Allah knows best
Wassalam
[Shaykh] Abdurragmaan Khan
Shaykh Abdurragmaan received ijazah ’ammah from various luminaries, including but not restricted to: Habib Umar ibn Hafiz—a personality who affected him greatly and who has changed his relationship with Allah, Maulana Yusuf Karaan—the former Mufti of Cape Town; Habib ‘Ali al-Mashhur—the current Mufti of Tarim; Habib ‘Umar al-Jaylani—the Shafi‘i Mufti of Makkah; Sayyid Ahmad bin Abi Bakr al-Hibshi; Habib Kadhim as-Saqqaf; Shaykh Mahmud Sa’id Mamduh; Maulana Abdul Hafiz al-Makki; Shaykh Ala ad-Din al-Afghani; Maulana Fazlur Rahman al-Azami and Shaykh Yahya al-Gawthani amongst others.
