Curling hair and shortening it

13-11-2003 | IslamWeb

Question:

Are Muslim women is allowed to curl her hair?

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Answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions. Curling the hair, shortening it and dressing it up are all lawful provided doing so is not in imitation of the disbelieving women, the vicious women or an imitation of men. Moreover, the objective behind this shaping of the hair should be the legal beautification or making combing it easier because the woman is asked to beautify herself for her husband. So, anything that does not contradict Shariah and that helps the woman beautify herself for her husband, is lawful. However, if the aim is to imitate disbelieving women or to imitate men then this is strictly forbidden. In fact, the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) forbade strictly imitating the disbelievers and said that any Muslim who imitates them is one of them. The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) also cursed women who imitate men. Al-Bukhari reported from Ibn Abbas that he said: The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) cursed men who imitate women and women who imitate men. Allah knows best.