Removing hair of eyebrows that deforms the face… a Sharee'ah perspective

27-8-2015 | IslamWeb

Question:

We have heard many different fatwas about plucking the eyebrows issued by both those who hold the permissibility and those who hold the prohibition of such an act. What is the truth about this matter? Is it absolutely forbidden? What about merely removing the excess hair because in many cases it is thick and looks disgusting, especially for the husband?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

Plucking the hair of the eyebrows is forbidden by virtue of the text of the sound Hadeeth that was narrated on the authority of Ibn Mas‘ood in which the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said:

The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, cursed those women who practice tattooing and those who get themselves tattooed; those women who remove the hair of their own eyebrows or do this for others and those who have this done for themselves, and those women who make artificial spaces between their teeth in order to look more beautiful whereby they change the creation of Allaah Almighty. [Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Daawood, An-Nasaa’i, At-Tirmithi and Ibn Maajah]

We do not know of any Muslim scholar who supports plucking the eyebrows or says that it is permissible. Even if we assume that there is an odd opinion that supports plucking eyebrows—which is a very unlikely matter—it is impermissible to adopt this opinion or follow it because it contradicts the sound Hadeeth.

Plucking eyebrows means removing the hair with tweezers. However, scholars joined any sort of removal or adjustment to this, no matter how this is done, because the cause of prohibition—changing the creation of Allaah Almighty—remains the same. Nevertheless, if the hair of the eyebrows or the face causes deformation, then there is no harm in removing the deforming excess hair as the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, allowed ‘Arfajah ibn Sa‘d to use a golden nose because his nose was cut off in one of the battles. This incident was narrated by At-Tirmithi and others. 

Allaah Knows best.