Wednesday, June 18, 2008

To Pluck or not to pluck?



Assalamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu

This is a very sensitive subject and this is what i know about it from various sources.

In the majority of the Arab states the ladies are seen with beautifully shaped eyebrows, and heavy make-up. Indeed it is so beautiful to see even on a lady wearing a Niqab.

Once I heard from someone that it is haraam to shape the eyebrows, and I used to do it myself, infact I learnt how to do it for others too, and used to do it.
My search for the correct guidance lead me to the following:

The following Fatwa issued by Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, who states:

“The word used in the Hadith is nams in Arabic, which means plucking the eyebrows. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) considered plucking as distorting the creation of Allah. This was the practice resorted to by prostitutes in the time of pre-Islamic jahiliyya (ignorance) and it is still used by women of loose morals.

However, scholars who have studied the issue in detail have concluded that if a person’s eyebrows are unusually thick or unwieldy, then he or she can straighten them out. This is not considered nams or plucking. Allah wants us to look neat and tidy, and by trying to appear neat and tidy we are not distorting Allah’s creation, rather we are only enhancing it.”

Dr. Muhammad Bakr Isma`il, Professor of the Exegesis of the Qur'an at Al-Azhar University, adds:

“It is known that plucking eyebrows is forbidden. However, some jurists permit light shaping of eyebrows if they are thick and hairy in a way that they harm the eye or appear so wide and thus displease the husband. If it pleases the husband that they are shaped lightly, there is nothing wrong in doing this just to please the husband. As for extreme shaping or plucking, it is not permitted.


http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Islamonline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503547124


Another view of the scholars is as follows:
Firstly:

It says in Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa'imah (17/133): “It is not permissible to remove the hair of the eyebrows because this is the namas (plucking) for which the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) cursed those who do it, and it is a kind of changing the creation of Allaah, which is the action of the Shaytaan. If a woman's husband tells her to do it, she should not obey him, because it is a sin, and there is no obedience to any created being if it involves disobedience towards the Creator. Rather obedience should only be with regard to things that are good and proper, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said.”

Secondly:

It is permissible to remove any hair from the face apart from the hair of the eyebrows.

It says in Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa'imah (17/130): “The evidence that it is permissible for a woman to remove hair from her body is the basic principle which states that it required for her to adorn herself for her husband. There is no evidence to suggest that this is not allowed, apart from the prohibition on al-namas (plucking), which means removing hair from the eyebrows.”

And it also says (5/197): “What is the Islamic ruling on removing hair that grows between the eyebrows? The Committee replied: It is permissible to pluck it, because it is not part of the eyebrows.”

And Allaah knows best.


Islam Q&A (www.islam-qa.com)



The evidence for that is the hadeeth of ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Mas’ood (may Allaah be pleased with him) who said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: “Allah has cursed the woman who does tattoos and the one who has them done, the woman who plucks eyebrows (al-naamisah) and the one who has it done (al-mutanammisah), and the one who files her teeth for the purpose of beauty, altering the creation of Allaah.”

(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 5931; Muslim, 2125)

http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/9037

Reading all the above made me stop shaping my eyebrows, at first they repulsed me very much, but then I thought to myself I am doing this solely for Allah and Inshallah Allah (SWT) will reward me for this.

I hope this helped the ladies out there!!!

Let me know what you think.

Wassalaam

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

salaam.

Yes, I do agree that shaping or plucking the eye brow is wrong.

Unless, they are, erm, blurring your vision, lol!

Keep up the blog sis!

Moon said...

JAzakallah :D and welcome to my blog

eyebrows that Blur your vision :)) like that!!!

Jana's Journeys said...

I have lived in the middle east and it's not as common as you say, I really think that is just a generalization. I think the Quran and hadiths are far more important when making decissions than islam q&a, those people are unknown and could really be anyone behind a computer.

Adventurous Ammena said...

masha'allah, Im glad you researched the subject and found the true reasoning behind this. alhamdulillah I stopped before I became muslim (i didnt do it all the time, but then I converted and found out I shouldnt) since then they have been quite tidy and people dont believe me that I havent touched them in nearly 5 years :)

Moon said...

welcome to my blog all,

Me too sis i stopped shaping them and alhamdo lillah they don't look that bad. I guess u need a good intention and Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala helps you.

julaybiba said...

i stopped plucking mine years ago alhamgulillah, but they bothered me tremendously, so one day my sister had bleached some of hers. not too much just to have them look tidy and i decided to try it myself. because even though i think my eyebrows are bushy, no one else sees it that way and so i wont pluck them, nor shape them, but just bleach them in order to disguise them a little bit. i hears and read and was told that bleaching isnt haram its the act of removing the hair that is.

Moon said...

Assalaamu Alaikum Julaybeeba, welcome to my blog sis :)

As far as i know there's nothing wrong with using bleach, according to Islam but I'll check for you.

I had a friend who used to bleach the hair on the face, and she found that they grew long due to the chemicals in the bleach, eventually she gave bleaching up and went with waxing, but it was only on areas of her face that made her look like she had a beard...

Anonymous said...

Salam sister,

I appreciate your efforts in clerifying this topic. Please share your feedback on bleching the eyebrows, is teh act permissible.

Shukran

Anonymous said...

"scholars who have studied the issue in detail have concluded that if a person’s eyebrows are unusually thick or unwieldy, then he or she can straighten them out. This is not considered nams or plucking. Allah wants us to look neat and tidy, and by trying to appear neat and tidy we are not distorting Allah’s creation, rather we are only enhancing it." i conclude that im still allowed to make my eyebrows look neat and tidy, because i have really thick eyebrows i just try to enhance the looks im not changing its shape, theyre still thick but now they just look neat, i don't think im supposed to look masculine as a muslimah because thats how my original eyebrows used to make me look like.

salam to my sisters