KHALEEJ TIMES: I RECEIVED several e-mails in regards to my column last week. Specifically, some readers wanted to know more about hair removal in the light of the Holy Quran and Sunnah. There are several things that both men and women can and cannot do when it comes to removing the hair.
For women, it is permissible to remove hair from the face with the exception of the eyebrows. However, if the eyebrows are so long and bushy that they interfere with the eyesight then they can be trimmed. In the case of women who have a “uni-brow”, which means that the two eyebrows are connected in the middle, the part of the eyebrow that is connected right above the nose can be removed since it is not considered to be part of the eyebrow. Also, hair that grows abnormally on women (like beards and moustaches) falls under the category of permissible hair to remove. In Islam, women are forbidden from looking like men and vice versa.
As for men, it is not acceptable to remove hair from any part of the face. However, the moustache can be trimmed. Men are also forbidden from trimming or plucking the eyebrows. And it is part of the Sunnah for men to grow the beard long and trim the moustache short.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:
“Cut the moustache and let the beard grow; be different from the mushrikeen.” (Bukhari,Muslim)
The mistake that many Muslim men make is to remove hair from their cheeks. It is a regular part of a haircut for men to ask the barber to use a method of hair removal called ‘threading’ to remove the hair from this area. It is forbidden to remove it because the hair on the cheeks is considered to be part of the beard.
Both men and women are instructed to remove the hair from the genitalia and armpit areas at least every 40 days The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “Ten (actions) are part of the fitrah [natural inclinations of man]: trimming the moustache, letting the beard grow, using the miswak (tooth-stick), rinsing the nose with water, clipping the nails, washing the finger joints, plucking the armpit hairs, shaving the pubes and washing oneself with water after relieving one’s self.” How to Get About in Those Hairy Situations >>> By Sumayyah Meehan
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
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