Is plucking eyebrows haram?

Tidying the eyebrows is one of the most ordinary acts of grooming, and one of the most anxious for Muslim women who have heard a single hadith quoted against it. Plucking, threading, or shaping the eyebrows is halal, for women and men. The hadith is real and sound. The classical scholars themselves explained that its prohibition rests on particular causes, and that where those causes are absent, so is the prohibition.

What does the hadith about plucking eyebrows say?

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “Allah has cursed the women who tattoo and those who are tattooed, the women who have their faces plucked (al-mutanammiṣāt), and the women who file gaps between their teeth for beauty, changing the creation of Allah” (Sahih al-Bukhari 5931). Sahih Muslim adds that a woman of the tribe of Asad, Umm Yaʿqūb, who had read the whole Quran, came to question him about it, saying she had not found it in the Book of Allah. He answered with the verse “Whatever the Messenger gives you, take it” (59:7) (Sahih Muslim 2125a).

In another version, Ibn ʿAbbās adds a qualification: the curse falls on these acts when they are done “without illness” (Sunan Abi Dawud 4170). Abu Dawud explains the word: the nāmiṣa is the woman who plucks the eyebrow until it becomes a thin line. The text itself therefore admits exceptions, and the scholars set out to understand its reason (ʿilla).

Why did the scholars limit the prohibition?

The jurists asked what made these acts wrong, because Islamic law ties a ruling to its cause: when the cause is present the ruling applies, and when it is absent the ruling lapses. They named several causes:

• Deception. Al-Khaṭṭābī, al-Qurṭubī, and al-Kirmānī explained the prohibition as a matter of fraud: making a woman appear other than she was, especially to a man seeking marriage. The Prophet ﷺ called false hair extensions zūr, a falsehood (Sahih al-Bukhari 5938).
• A mark of immorality. Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 1201) suggested in Kashf al-Mushkil that the hadith concerned women who adorned themselves this way to solicit men. On this reading, the prohibition concerned a practice that marked a particular group in that society.
• Lasting change. Al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (d. 1149), the great Maliki scholar of Sahih Muslim, recorded the view of Maliki scholars that the prohibition concerns permanent changes to the body, and that adornment which does not last is allowed. He also cited a report that ʿAisha (may Allah be pleased with her) permitted a wife to remove hair from her brow and face.

The schools followed these readings in their own ways. Ibn ʿĀbidīn (d. 1836) wrote in Radd al-Muḥtār that the hadith may refer to a woman who adorns herself for men outside her marriage. Ibn Qudāma (d. 1223) recorded in al-Mughnī that Imam Ahmad’s prohibition concerned plucking only, so shaving the brow remained permitted. Al-Nawawī (d. 1277) wrote that such changes are allowed when needed to treat a condition or a defect.

Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta brought these strands together in a fatwa by the Grand Mufti Shawki Allam. The prohibition is not absolute, he ruled: it follows its cause, and shaping the eyebrows for a legitimate purpose is permitted.

Is plucking eyebrows haram today?

Some scholars, especially in the Hanbali and modern Salafi traditions, hold that plucking the eyebrows is forbidden for any purpose. This is a recognized opinion, and women who follow it act in good faith.

The stronger view is that shaping the eyebrows is permissible for every woman, married or unmarried. None of the causes the scholars named applies to ordinary grooming today. Groomed brows deceive no one, since everyone knows eyebrows are shaped. They carry no sign of immorality in any modern society. And the hair grows back within weeks, so nothing in the creation of Allah is permanently changed. The Quran describes the Prophet ﷺ as the one who came to lift burdens from people:

وَيَضَعُ عَنۡهُمۡ إِصۡرَهُمۡ وَٱلۡأَغۡلَٰلَ ٱلَّتِي كَانَتۡ عَلَيۡهِمۡ

“He relieves them of their burdens and of the shackles that were upon them.”

Quran 7:157

Reading a hadith through its reason is how the scholars have always worked with the texts; see How should the Quran be interpreted? The same reasoning applies to tattoos, discussed in Are tattoos haram?, and to cosmetics in Is makeup haram?

Is it haram to thread, wax, or tint your eyebrows?

Threading, waxing, tweezing, and trimming all remove hair that grows back, and the same ruling covers each. Tinting the brows is a form of dyeing, which the Sunnah encourages for the hair (Is it haram to dye your hair?). Microblading, a semi-permanent tattoo, falls under the ruling on tattoos.

Can men pluck their eyebrows?

Yes. Men may tidy their brows, remove stray hairs, and clear a unibrow. Many scholars who are strict about women’s brows allow removing the hair between the eyebrows, since it lies outside the brow itself. Grooming that suits a man in his own culture follows custom (ʿurf), just as with the beard (Is it haram to shave your beard?).

A closing word

The religion Allah sent is a religion of ease:

يُرِيدُ ٱللَّهُ بِكُمُ ٱلۡيُسۡرَ وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ ٱلۡعُسۡرَ

“Allah wants ease for you, and does not want hardship for you.”

Quran 2:185

Shape your brows as you like, thread them, or leave them as they grow. Groom yourself with a clear conscience, and keep your heart free of the vanity and deceit that the hadith warns against. That freedom from deceit is the beauty that lasts.