Ruling concerning buying and possessing fashion magazines

Question: What is the ruling concerning fashion magazines, like Burda, in order to benefit from them concerning new women's fashions and accessories. What is the ruling concerning keeping them after one has already benefited from them while they are filled with pictures of women?

Response: There is no doubt that buying magazines that just contain pictures is forbidden. This is because possessing pictures is forbidden, based on the statement of the Messenger of Allaah (sal-Allaahu `alayhe wa sallam) "The angels do not enter a house which contains pictures." When the Prophet (sal-Allaahu `alayhe wa sallam) saw a picture on a cushion with 'Aa.ishah, he stood and did not enter the room. His dislike could be seen on his face. Those fashion magazines must be looked into to see what they contain as not every fashion is permissible. The fashions might be such that they show the woman's body, due to their tightness or for other reasons. The fashions could be the dresses of the disbelievers that are particular to them. Imitating the disbelievers is forbidden, since the Prophet (sal-Allaahu `alayhe wa sallam) said, "Whoever imitates a people is one of them." I advise my Muslim brothers in general and my Muslim sisters in particular to avoid those fashions as either they are imitation of non-Muslims or they display what the woman should be concealing. If women follow every new fashion, then it means, in general, that our customs that have come from our religion will be changed for customs that have been taken from non-Muslims.

Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymeen