Bilal Assad – Can men dye their hair black
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Assalamu Alaikum.
A question has come to me about
the ruling of
black dye, dyeing the hair black for men
and for women, and here is my answer.
For women
there is no difference of opinion among any
of the traditional scholars past or present,
which,
said that it is forbidden for women. Therefore
for women dyeing your hair in any color
is permissible
in
in in any color that tickles your fancy.
Regarding the men there is a difference of
opinion about dyeing their hair black. Now first
of all,
did you know that it is actually a
Sunnah? It's a way of life of the
prophet peace be upon him, and recommended in
Islam for people who have grey hair to
dye it.
The common thing we see, a lot of
the traditional Muslims doing is dyeing their hair
with
henna. Henna is a reddish orangey type of
dye, which is fine and good and it
is part of what the practices of the
prophet peace of his companions
used to do. But,
they didn't just specify henna, it's only because
henna was considered to be a type of
remedy
for the hair. So it's more like a
medication
along with remedy along with,
just dyeing it and looking,
good in their, custom and cultural view. So
it's not necessarily it's not a religious sunnah
to use hinnah, even though the prophet sometimes
used it.
The second thing I wanna say is, okay,
in relation
to, other colors. So it is, good for
men to dye their hair,
if it goes gray
with, any other color that is earthy. Now
earthy is more of a,
a color that is neutral, neutral colors, and
that is because a Muslim is,
guided in Islam to look modest and to
look presentable,
but not outrageous,
or to stand out, you know, in a
crowd. That's, part of modesty in humbleness. Now
we come to the idea of black dye.
Is it permissible for men? Is it forbidden?
There is a difference of opinion among the
scholars about the color black for men.
The majority of the schools,
I'm talking about the
Hanafi,
Shafi'i, no Hanafi,
Maliki,
and the Hambali school,
and
a majority of other scholars
view
dyeing the hair black for men is Makruh,
disliked,
and there is a minority view among them
who say it is permissible, muba, neutral.
The Shafi'i school consider it to be forbidden.
What is their evidence?
The evidence for those who say it is
forbidden
is based on 2 main authentic Hadiths,
and then their interpretation of it among their
jurists.
They use the first hadith, which is authentic
about,
Abu Bakr radiAllahu anhu's father Abu Khuhaifa.
When the prophet
and his companions entered Makkah and opened Makkah,
Abu Quhaifa the father of Abu Bakr was
over 90 years old and that's a keyword
here.
He came to embrace Islam
with the Prophet peace be upon him, it's
a beautiful story
and his hair
was completely
white
like a white cloud they described
it. So the prophet peace be upon him
said to his companions
go and dye his hair and cover all
that white.
And then he said, avoid
the color black.
This is the question mark. Those who said
it was haram took this to mean that
it is haram to dye black.
But the response from the majority of the
scholars and those who said especially that it's
just permissible
and not just disliked,
was that they said what the prophet peace
be upon him meant over here was because
Abu Quhaifa was very old and had he
dyed it black
then it would look like a it would
subject him to insults.
So example, children, other people pointing and talking
about a wrinkly old man with a dark
black beard did not look like a presentable
form. Therefore he said, avoid the black to
safeguard him from being insulted.
The second hadith they used to say that
it is haram, that is forbidden,
is the hadith of the prophet Salih al
Salih which is also in, Sahih Muslim,
where he talks about the future where a
group of people, a movement will come out
of men who were called later on the
Khawarij.
And these are it was an extremist group
who came out, and he describes their characteristics
by saying that they used to,
shave their hair completely,
other than the time of Hajj and they
would dye their hair
dark black.
So those scholars who said it was haram
took this to mean that the prophet SAW
is saying this is haram, but the majority
of the view took this to mean that
this is just merely
describing their features. It doesn't mean that if
you have those features you're going to halify
or you're an extremist.
It's just describing what they would look like
because we also shave our heads, our hair
in, in Hajj and Umrah and no one
says that you're being extreme and no scholar
said that shaving your hair is haram at
all in other circumstances.
Some had the view that it is better
to do it only in Hajj and Umrah,
but there's nothing to say that it's haram
for men to shave their hair at all.
So that was the reply to that. To
add to,
to this, the scholars who say that it
is permissible to dye your hair black, which
is the majority,
and as I mentioned some say disliked, better
to avoid it,
is that some of the companions of the
prophet, peace be upon him, used to dye
their hair black. Among them were Al Hassan,
Al Hussein,
Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas,
Jareer,
Rookba, Ibno Amir. All of these are great,
highly respected companions as you know.
And Uqba 'Abnu'Aamir actually has a poem in
which he says,
We dye our hair black from the outside,
but its roots
refuse
to stay black. In other words, when the
hair outgrows a little bit, you start seeing
the white hairs showing up. So this is
an indication of course, how we knew from
their narrations and their stories that dyeing your
hair black is more correctly viewed as permissible,
or disliked if there is no need to
do it. For example, you might have a
job in which you need to look more
professional, or there is a uniform,
I mean white hair can also be professional,
I'm not saying that it's not, but in
some instances you may need to look a
bit more presentable and it's required,
to be for example with with with hair
that that is dyed, or you are a
person who
travels a lot, or is,
just has some maybe,
personal
habits, or or or can't,
you know, or or it motivates you to
have your hair black, and so on. So
these
common reasons that makes you dyeing your hair
either permissible or disliked.
So my brothers and sisters,
obviously, it if if you're not comfortable with
that and you still want to go with
your school of thought or the views of
the scholars that you follow, then the safer
option for you is to avoid the black.
However, once again there is, as you heard,
valid opinions, valid evidence
that dyeing the hair black for men is
not necessarily forbidden, it's only one minority view,
and that if you do see someone doing
that or you hear that, do not impose
upon them your view or say that they
are sinful that would be haram because there
is a valid difference of opinion about it.
That's my answer, I hope that,
answers your question. Wase salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi wa
barakatuh.