Selling underwear when most of the packaging has pictures of semi-naked women on it
Question I have a shop for women’s clothing. On the packages of the under cloth there are semi naked pictures of women. If I remove these covers, the buyers may think that it is old goods. What should I do? If I make the faces black this will not benefit, as the rest of…
Question
If I make the faces black this will not benefit, as the rest of the body is uncovered! My shop is for Islamic wear. There is a section for under wears which is good for is a religious sister comes she will find all she needs. I mean women who wear niqab in particular, so that they do not have to go to a mixed place to buy such things. There is a good religious sister working for me, she is in charge of this section, I do not sell anything there as I am, Alhamdulillah, religious man.
Praise be to Allah.
The pictures that are found
on the packaging, cartons and boxes for these clothes are things that are
not sought in and of themselves, rather they are connected to the
permissible goods, so there is nothing wrong with leaving them alone, but if
it is possible to remove them or erase them without any damage, that is
preferable.
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may
Allaah have mercy on him) was asked: What is the ruling on pictures that are
found on packaging and in magazines and newspapers?
He replied:
With regard to pictures
that are found on packaging and in magazines and newspapers, whatever it is
possible to avoid should be left alone; whatever cannot be avoided, if the
picture is not what is sought, then it seems that the prohibition is lifted,
based on the shar’i principle, “and [Allaah] has not laid upon you in
religion any hardship” [al-Hajj 22:78]. And hardship dictates leniency.
But keeping away from it is better. End quote from Majmoo’ Fataawa
al-Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (2/260).
And he (may Allaah have
mercy on him) said: The fourth category: Keeping pictures that one has no
desire for, but they come along with something else, like those which are
found in magazines and newspapers that the person does not buy for the sake
of the pictures, rather he wants what is in those magazines and newspapers,
such as news, scientific research and so on. It seems that there is nothing
wrong with this, because the images in them are not what is sought. But if
it is possible to erase them without any hardship or difficulty, that is
better. End quote from Sharh Kitaab al-Tawheed, Baab Ma Ja’a
fi’l-Musawwireen.
What we advise you to do is
several things:
1.Some of these images a printed
on a piece of paper that is separate from the box; if it is possible to
remove this, even if it means re-wrapping the clothes, then that is better.
2.If the pictures are small, and
they can all be erased without harming the product, then do that.
3.If it is not possible to do all
of that, then you can use stickers on the outside to cover the pictures, or
the most provocative parts of them, so that the purchaser will know that it
has been covered deliberately – because it is offensive – and that there is
nothing wrong with the item, and the one who does not buy it will not see
the picture or he will miss seeing the picture if he wants to.
And Allaah knows best.
