A pal with monk's garb almost in emirate (3,5)
I believe the answer is:
abu dhabi
'emirate' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both locations as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'a pal with monk's garb almost' is the wordplay.
'pal' becomes 'bud' (I've seen this in another clue).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'monk's garb' becomes 'habit' (I've seen this in another clue).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (almost the whole word is kept).
'habit' with its last letter taken away is 'habi'.
'a'+'bud'+'habi'='ABU DHABI'
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for abu dhabi that I've seen before include "in Middle East" , "One of the United Arab Emirates" , "Federal capital of the United Arab Emirates" , "Persian Gulf emirate" , "M East country" .)