In fact, the Holy Prophet wanted to create some manly traditions among men, distinct from ladies, and wanted to teach his followers that men and ladies differ in certain habits and qualities. Gold is a precious metal which is used as ornament by ladies for the past millennium, or many years before, I mean, the history of mankind was even known. They have not been using gold alone, but they have been using all sorts of ornaments. So this goes with the nature of ladies, and if a thing is very deeply related and closely associated with a class of people, then naturally, if you start imitating it, you also have some qualities of that class, and you are deprived of some other qualities of the other class.
So by using gold in Arabic society, people became feminine in their habits, and the gold was used not by warriors, but by those lordly, lord-like people who would sit behind and make a show of their wealth, and were worthless people. And also gold was extensively used by the pundits, that is, the clergymen sitting in the places of worship, of idolatry, places of idolatry. So Hazrat Rasul-e-Karim sallallahu alaihi wa sallam condemned this habit, and wanted to create manliness among his people. That may be one reason, but there are other reasons as well. Gold, in fact, has been discouraged as a value by our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, to remove the inclination towards materialism. It is condemned in so many ways, that even ladies have been discouraged.
This is what people do not think, or perhaps do not know, that once a lady offered one of his bangles, golden bangles, to Hazrat Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and he accepted it for the sake of Islam, he accepted it and said, you have saved one arm or one wrist from fire, won’t you like the other wrist to be saved as well? And she offered the other bangle as well. That showed that our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam discouraged the use of gold and what you call, of treasures in any form. And this is why at another place he says, that if you have the habit of collecting valuables and reserving them as treasures, in the life after, you will be punished by the same articles of failure.
That is a general tendency, general policy of our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, which is apparent. But because he wanted to make an exception in case of ladies, because use of gold and wearing of gold was so close to their nature, so he didn’t prohibit them. But generally speaking, he discouraged ornaments as such. This is why there is zakat on them.
