What is the ruling on plucking hair from the arms and legs for women?

The questioner : What is the ruling on plucking hair from the arms and legs for women?

The Shaykh : This is a problem of the present age. The basis for this issue is a verse and an authentic hadith. As for the verse, it is what our Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He, related in the story of Iblis and Allah’s expulsion of him from His mercy until the Day of Judgment, because of his whispering to our father Adam (peace be upon him). He related that Iblis said, in retaliation against Adam and his descendants: :
In this noble verse, there is an explicit statement that among the deeds of the accursed Iblis is that he inspires his enemy, man, to change the creation of Allah. Thus, changing the creation of Allah is obedience to Satan and disobedience to the Most Merciful. This verse is explicit text in this matter. Therefore, we say, so that the issue is clear in the minds:
Every change to the creation of Allah without permission from the Shari'ah is obedience to Satan, carrying out his threat, and disobedience to the Most Merciful. This is confirmed in the hadith I referred to, namely what came in the two Sahihs from the hadith of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him). He said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: In another narration, there is a further phrase, which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): , :
The curse in this hadith fell upon these types. At the end, there is a very important phrase, as if it is an answer to a question that may arise in some minds. Some people ask: Why is there this severity and this threat in a simple matter, such as taking some hair from the face or any part of the body that Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, has not permitted?
The answer came at the end of the hadith: :
With this phrase, which can be called the explanatory phrase, it is established that if any of this change occurs in the body of a Muslim man or woman for treatment and not for adornment or beauty, there is no harm in that. Because he did not commit this change for beauty, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said at the end of the hadith, but rather for healing and treatment. Once we know this phrase, we return to detailing the statement into the individual terms of these phrases:
The first is: :
In the language, as I have learned from the books of language, such as *al-Qamus al-Muhit* by al-Fayruzabadi and others, *namas* (plucking eyebrows) is, in weight and meaning, the same as *natf* (plucking). *Namas* and *natf* are one and the same meaning. If that is the case, and we add to this general linguistic meaning the explanation mentioned at the end of the hadith: , then we know that restricting the meaning of *natf* to the eyebrows only contradicts, first, the general meaning of *namas*, just as it negates the generality of the explanatory phrase at the end of the hadith: . If, for example, a woman does not have thickness in her eyebrows and does not need to pluck them or pluck some of their sides, but she sees some hair on her cheeks and plucks it, this is called *namas* first, meaning plucking. Then it falls under the generality of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . Accordingly, there is no difference between plucking the eyebrows and plucking the hair that grows on the cheeks for women, let alone for men. This is a point that must be returned to if time permits. Plucking what is on the cheeks for the sake of adornment and beautification is, first, plucking, and second, it falls under the bad intention mentioned in the verse: . This is a change to the creation of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. Then it falls under the generality of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): .
After this, we proceed with the rest of the hadith: :
The *namisah* is: the one who plucks (the eyebrows), and the *muntamissah* is: the one upon whom the plucking is done. So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), as is his custom in many legal rulings, in order to realize: , cursed the woman who plucks her sister’s eyebrows, just as he cursed the sister whose eyebrows are plucked. Because they cooperate in what is wrong, which is changing the creation of Allah, Mighty and Majestic.