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Plucking and dyeing the eyebrows

15-07-1999

Question 4610

I understand that plucking the eybrows is prohibited in Islam. I have the following questions. 1) Can the eybrow hairs be trimmed? 2) Can the eybrow hairs be lightened in color (for example from brown to blond)?

Please provided daleel.

Answer

Praise be to Allah.

Namas is the word used to describe plucking the eyebrows. According to a saheeh hadith, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “The woman who plucks facial hair and the woman who has this done are cursed.” (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim).

Namas means plucking the hair, or it was said that it means plucking the facial hair. “The woman who plucks facial hair” is the woman who removes hair from her own face or the face of another woman. “The woman who has this done” refers to a woman who plucks hair from her own face or tells another woman to do this for her. Minmaas refers to tweezers, the tool used to remove a thorn. When a woman removes hair from her face, this can also be done by using a thread. This also includes thinning the eyebrows.

The fuqaha’ agreed that plucking the eyebrow hair is included in the removal of facial hair, which is forbidden because of the hadith: “Allah has cursed the women who pluck their facial hair and the women who have this done.”

The majority of fuqaha’ said that removing facial hair other than the eyebrows is also included in Namas, and the fuqaha’ agreed that the prohibition on Namas in the hadith should be understood to mean that it is haraam.

Removing facial hair is also forbidden for men. (Al-Mawsoo’ah al-Fiqhiyyah, part 14, Tanammus).
Al-Haytami said: as for removing some of the eyebrow hairs if they have grown long, I do not see anything wrong with this according to our companions, but it should be makrooh because it is changing the creation of Allah, may He be glorified and exalted. Nothing concerning this was narrated so it should be makrooh. (Al-Fatawa al-Kubra by Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, part 4, Baab al-‘Aqeeqah).

If the eyebrows have grown so long that they are troublesome or causing harm such as preventing one from seeing properly, then the part that is causing the problem may be trimmed.

With regard to dyeing the eyebrows or a part of them with a blonde colour or a colour similar to that of the skin, there is nothing wrong with this, as was stated in a fatwa issued by our Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn ‘Abd-Allah ibn Baz (may Allah have mercy on him and raise his status). He also stated in a fatwa that it is permissible to remove hair growing between the eyebrows because this is not part of them, but he stated that it is not permissible to trim the eyebrows if they are not troublesome or causing harm.

And Allah knows best

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