(296) Chapter: Prohibition of Wearing False Hair, Tattooing and Filling of Teeth

Ibn 'Umar (May Allah be pleased with them) said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) cursed the maker and wearer of a wig and the tattooer and the one who is tattooed. [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]. Commentary: Al-Washimah is a woman who practises Al-Washm Al-Washm was performed (in the past) by piercing needle in some part of the body for drawing blood and then filling the cavity caused by it with antimony, indigo, etc., to make the spot green or black. This is called tattooing. In the Arab society of the Prophet's time, this fashion was very popular among women for enhancing their charms and beauty in the same way as the fashion of patching someone's hair with his own. Al-Mustaushima is a woman who asks some women for tattooing and/or a woman who marks tattoos on the skin of another woman. As this act amounts to changing the natural appearance of a person, both women, that is the one who subjects her body to tattooing and the one who makes this operation, are cursed. Such fashions are in vogue in this age also. Plucking the eyelashes and filling them with colours and other material of make up, or like Hindu women, making mark between the eyebrows with cinnabar etc., fall in the category of such fashions. Such means of make up which are practised nowadays by women and on which huge amounts of money are wasted are the things which have been cursed. Muslim women should, therefore, avoid such evils as they are ruinous for religion as well as worldly life. Similar is the case of nail polish. In the opinion of some religious scholars, this act invalidates Wudu'. Women are now also in the habit of keeping long nails on which nail polish is applied to give an effect of beastly claws. All such vile fashions have been borrowed by oriental societies from the class of shameless women of the West, and Muslim women have also adopted them. We must strictly abstain from them because they tend to create resemblance to the non-Muslims, which is unlawful and is rated as a major sin.