Abdur-Raheem McCarthy – 3 Types of body hair in Islam

			Salam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah. When it comes to our body hair in Islam, what is permissible for us to
remove from our bodies? And what is haram to remove from the body hair? This is a question we get
quite frequently from both sisters and brothers. And to make it easy. There are three different
types of body here are three different categories that the body hair has to fall into one of these
categories. And once you understand the categories, then you're going to what's permissible for you
to remove, and what is haram to remove from your body here. The first category is the type of body
hair that we will ordered to leave that it's not permissible for us to remove. And the example of
		

			this type of hair is the beard for the man and the eyebrows, trimming the eyebrows for the women and
also for the men as well. And what's meant by being hung on when it comes to the eyebrows, you know
the styles that the women do today. But if someone has an abnormal eyebrow, like the unibrow words,
you know, really big one big eyebrows, it's permissible to remove this in the middle. Also, if
there's you know, their eyebrows are very big to put it down to a normal level, or there's a hair
coming down into your eye and you have to you have to cut that all of this is permissible, there's
no problem with that inshallah. And the second category is the type of hair that we've been told to
		

			remove it's sunnah to remove. And this is for both men and women, when and then the example of that
is the armpit hair, and the pubic hair. And also for the men, the trimming of the mustache. This is
also from the Sunnah that we've been ordered to remove. And this should be done as it came in the
Sunnah, at least every 40 days, meaning it shouldn't go over 40 days before you remove the pupil
hair or their armpit hair. And before you trim your mustache, the third category are all the types
of body hair, they didn't fall into the first category or the second category. And the example for
those types of hair would be the hair that we have on our arms, on our legs, on our chest, on our
		

			stomach on our backs. All of this generally it's there's nothing that came in Islam that it's you
know, we should remove or shouldn't remove it. So we say generally speaking, it's permissible, halal
to remove it. However, there is a difference when it comes to male and female when it comes to this
type of body hair. When it comes to the females, it's better that they remove these hair, especially
when they get married. And it's the custom around most of the Muslim world that the women have that
they remove this type of body hair because she doesn't want to fall into imitating a man. And even
when it comes to facial hair for the woman. If she has facial hair, which give her resemblance of a
		

			man, he or she should definitely remove this as well. So this type of hair is better for her to
remove. She doesn't have to but as we said most of the customers that we have as Muslims around the
world, especially when the women get married, they do remove this hair well hamdulillah when it
comes to the brothers, the original is that men have hair on these body parts that we mentioned. And
the men shouldn't remove it, there could be certain cases where he's over hairy, very hairy back
very hairy chest, something that's abnormal, like we mentioned earlier with the eyebrow. So here to
make that less to take some of it off or even to remove it. There's no problem with that. But when
		

			it comes to someone who has, you know, normal chest hair, normal hair on his arms and his legs and
he removes it here, I would say don't do this for the brothers. Why? Because you're gonna fall into
most likely imitating the women it's something that women do. So you will find that something that
is haram, you could also fall into imitating the disbelievers many of them now who are moving the
body hair, like the models you have online and things like this. So that's something that a Muslim
man needs to stay away from. And it's not something that's manly to remove these types of hair. So
therefore, even though say generally speaking, what is the rule because you look at something
		

			generally, you say it might be permissible. But when you fall into other things that haram when it
comes to imitating women or even attending disbelievers that would make it haram so therefore, it's
something that men should stay away from inshallah. So these are the three types of body hair in
Islam. And when it comes to obviously, the hair on our heads, what's important is that we whether
you're male or female, that you stay away from different haircuts that can imitate the opposite
gender or imitate the disbelievers. So any haircut is a haircut that would resemble the disbelievers
resembles too far. Or it is something that imitates a woman if you're a man or vice versa, if a
		

			woman were to cut her hair in a way that's that's usually the haircut of a man then this also will
be haram it's not permissible. And that's something we need to be very careful about because it's
grown in the in a western societies where it's okay for a man for a woman, for example, to cut her
hair like a man very short, but this is something that wouldn't be permissible in Islam if it's
going to fall into imitating a man and Allah knows best