QUESTION:

Could you please advise if threading the eyebrows or hair on the face is allowed in Islam? 

ANSWER:

It is prohibited for men as well as women to do threading which is a way of plucking the hairs on the eyebrows to shape them.

It would be allowed only when a woman has facial hairs over her lips and on the chin. To use threading to remove excess hair in these circumstances would be permissible. Also, if the eyebrows are very dense which makes the woman look bad (manly or unattractive to her husband etc) then it would be allowed for her to pluck them to a normal size.

The Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وآله وصحبه وسلم) invoked the curse of Allah upon the women who remove hair from their eyebrows.

عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ، قَالَ لَعَنَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ الْوَاشِمَاتِ وَالْمُسْتَوْشِمَاتِ وَالْمُتَنَمِّصَاتِ وَالْمُتَفَلِّجَاتِ لِلْحُسْنِ الْمُغَيِّرَاتِ لِخَلْقِ اللَّهِ

Abdullah narrates: the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وآله وصحبه وسلم) cursed the woman who does tattoos and the one who has them done, and those who pluck their eyebrows and file their teeth for the purpose of beautification, and those who change the creation of Allah.

[Ibn Majah Book 9, Hadith 1989]

عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ، قَالَ لُعِنَتِ الْوَاصِلَةُ وَالْمُسْتَوْصِلَةُ وَالنَّامِصَةُ وَالْمُتَنَمِّصَةُ وَالْوَاشِمَةُ وَالْمُسْتَوْشِمَةُ مِنْ غَيْرِ دَاءٍ ‏.‏ قَالَ أَبُو دَاوُدَ وَتَفْسِيرُ الْوَاصِلَةِ الَّتِي تَصِلُ الشَّعْرَ بِشَعْرِ النِّسَاءِ وَالْمُسْتَوْصِلَةُ الْمَعْمُولُ بِهَا وَالنَّامِصَةُ الَّتِي تَنْقُشُ الْحَاجِبَ حَتَّى تَرِقَّهُ وَالْمُتَنَمِّصَةُ الْمَعْمُولُ بِهَا وَالْوَاشِمَةُ الَّتِي تَجْعَلُ الْخِيلاَنَ فِي وَجْهِهَا بِكُحْلٍ أَوْ مِدَادٍ وَالْمُسْتَوْشِمَةُ الْمَعْمُولُ بِهَا ‏.‏

Ibn ‘Abbas narrates: the woman who supplies fake hair and the one who asks for it, the woman who pulls out hair for other people and the woman who depilates herself, the woman who does tattoos and the one who has it done when there is no disease to justify it have been cursed.

Abu Dawud said: Wasilah means the woman who adds false hair to the hair of women. Mustawsilah means the one who asks for adding the hair to her hair. namisah means a woman who plucks hair from the brow until she makes it thin; mutanammisah means the woman who depilates herself ; washimah is a woman who tattoos in the face with antimony or ink ; mustawshimah is a woman with whom it is done.

[Abu Dawud Book 35, Hadith 12]

Allah knows best.

Answered by Mawlana Mohammed Kashif

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[Q-ID0380] Can a man remove the hair from his body and have laser hair removal done?

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