What is the ruling on a woman removing her eyebrows if they make her appearance ugly?

The questioner : May the Shaykh be respected, I would like to ask you about the one who plucks her eyebrows and the one who has them plucked.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : It is known that there is a practice of shaping the eyebrows on the face.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : So if the eyebrows are, meaning, more than necessary for the woman, and her husband asks her to adorn herself for them.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : And in my village, there is a narration in the book *Rulings on Women* regarding what was reported from Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), where she says, "If you can pluck out your eyebrows and make them better than they are, then do so." And in another narration, she says, "Remove the annoyance from yourself as much as you can."

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : I would like to inquire from your eminence.

The Shaykh: First, does anyone pluck their eyebrows unless they are somewhat thick?

The questioner : Some of them do it for adornment, to the extent that it is like a pen line.

The Shaykh: Ah, it is the new fashion, meaning.

The questioner : It is both old and new.

The Shaykh: Ah, well, the important thing is that the Muslim, and the Muslim woman, does not start taking the rulings of the Shari'ah from below, but from above.

The questioner: Yes, exactly.

The Shaykh: From above, saying "Allah said" and "The Messenger of Allah said," and not "So-and-so said" and "So-and-so said." So you are now asking about that report you read in the book *Rulings on Women*. Why did you not raise your question to Allah and to the Messenger of Allah? If you do not find an answer from the speech of Allah and from the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), then after that you descend to one of the Companions, because they are the people who are to be followed. But to reverse the ladder, to start from the bottom and leave the top, this is contrary to His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): , . So if you are aware of this hadith, then it is obligatory for you to stop at His saying (peace be upon him) at its beginning: . So now we should cooperate to understand this text: is it specific or general? That is, does it include every woman who plucks her eyebrows, whether her eyebrow is thick or thin, whether the plucking is for the end of the eyebrow or for the whole eyebrow? We should stop at this text and understand it, because we speak the Arabic language in which the Qur'an was revealed and in which the Prophet of Islam (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) spoke. There is no doubt or ambiguity that when he (peace be upon him) said: , he made the text general and did not specify it. Therefore, the meaning of the hadith is: , whether the plucking is for the whole eyebrow, or for a part of it, or for the end of it, and whether the eyebrow is thick or thin. This is how the text should be understood in the Arabic style, especially since this text, in its three sections, mentions the women who pluck their eyebrows, the women who have them plucked, the women who tattoo, and the women who have tattoos, and the women who file their teeth. These are three types, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) explained them at the end of the hadith by saying: . If there is a group of women, one of these women has a thin eyebrow, and yet she is not pleased with it, so she takes from the end of her eyebrow, and there is a second woman whose eyebrow is thicker than the first, so she takes from it what she wishes, and there is a third woman whose eyebrow is thicker and thicker, so she takes from it what she wishes. Are not these three women, and the number and examples can be increased, and what we have mentioned is sufficient? Is it not true that these three examples fall under the generality of his saying (peace be upon him): the women who pluck their eyebrows? The answer is yes. Then, does not every type of these three types fall under the generality of his saying (peace be upon him): ? The answer is also yes. Then, finally, comes the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), when He narrated about the accursed Shaytan, when He cursed him to the Day of Resurrection for his refusal to obey his Lord when He commanded him to prostrate to Adam, so he was arrogant and proud and said: . Then, from his misguidance and from the curse he deserved to the Day of Resurrection, he set himself up to oppose the children of Adam to the Day of Resurrection, and he said, among other things: , excuse me . So, any woman, whatever she is, if she changes her eyebrow, she has obeyed Shaytan and disobeyed the Most Merciful. Then, it is not fitting for me, with this explanation and lengthening, because it is not permissible for me to conceal knowledge, to draw attention to the fact that the plucking mentioned in the hadith is not specific to the eyebrows, but includes every part of the woman's body, such as the cheeks, or the lip, or similar, or the arm, or the leg. All of this falls under the generality of plucking and changing the creation of Allah. This is a reminder, if Allah wills, that you will benefit from and stop at, and you will not obey Shaytan and disobey the Most Merciful. That is what I hope for, perhaps the answer has become clear to you.

The questioner: Yes, exactly.

The Shaykh: Well? Do you have another question?

The questioner : A moment, please, May the Shaykh be respected.

The Shaykh: Yes.