Ruling on Gaye Holud ceremony

6-3-2013 | IslamWeb

Question:

Is Gaye holud (translates to “yellowing of the body.” at night before wedding ceremony ) an islamic culture or a bengali culture ? If it is a islamic culture can you give any evidence from quran & sunnah ? In our country Bangladesh some people mention a hadith to prove that it is an islamic culture. The hadith is:oneday abd al rahman bin awf came to prophet (pbuh).There was a symbol of yellow on his dress.The prophet (pbuh) laughed a little & asked the reason.He said,'i've married a woman from ansaar.' is this hadith shaheeh? Can it be a proof for that. Plz give me a great details because i'm very much confused.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

It was not proved that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, nor his Companions nor others of the righteous predecessors of our Islamic nation followed that tradition in their wedding ceremonies. As for the Hadeeth of ‘Abdur-Rahmaan ibn ‘Awf that you have referred to in your question, it is reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim and has the highest degrees of soundness; however, it has nothing to do with smearing the body; rather, it is about perfuming with saffron. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa .">115607.

Nevertheless, we say that the basic ruling of traditions is that they are permissible, rather what should be considered about them is their essence. So, if it (Gaye Holud) is done for a sound purpose such as giving the bride and groom more beauty as stated in the question and it is not among the habits specific to non-Muslims nor is it accompanied with any false beliefs or prohibited matters such as looking at or touching the private parts, then there is nothing wrong with it, Allaah Willing.

Allaah Knows best.