Moral Teachings of Islam 19 – Beautification And Behavior

The name of God the beneficence the Merciful, the creator and the Sustainer of the universe, peace and blessings upon your servant, messenger Muhammad ever me. I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except the one true God. And I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger and servant of God. I greet you all with the universal greetings of peace, greetings that have been used by all of the profits from Abraham through to Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon the mall. Assalamu Aleikum, which means peace be unto you. Today we have our 19th program in our series dealing with the moral teachings of Islam. More specifically, today's topic will deal with the

question of personal beautification and adornment. I'm your host Hamad Rashid, and I have with me as usual on the program, Dr. Jamal Badawi of St. Mary's University of Jamal assalamu, Aleikum Malik.

I wonder if perhaps,

to start off today's program, if you might make a brief comment on the connection between the topic that we're going to be discussing today the question of beautification, the Dharma, make the connection between this topic and the last few programs that we've been discussing in this series. Sure. In the last few programs, we have been focusing on the issue of the safeguarding of honor as one of the objectives of Islamic law, and one part of the moral teachings of Islam.

More specifically, we dealt with issues such as prohibition of fornication and adultery. Not only this, but also the other measures of preventive measures that Islam requires to prevent this from happening, which included the purification of society from

fornication and from pornography and indecency.

The prohibition of lusty looks to the other sex, and the last few programs we've been dealing also with the question of modesty or the code of dress for both men and women.

Today's programs seem to follow logically from this sequence, because personal adornment and beautification is one aspect of our own appearance that seemed to connect with the question of dress, like dress also, beautification, and adornment and itself is not prohibited. But Islam provides also boundaries for it in such a way that it protects and safeguards individual and social mobility.

I see that you've brought along a very interesting chart I've never, I haven't seen this topic broken down quite so uniquely, as you've done on this particular chart, I wonder if perhaps you might refer to the chart for a moment and to just go through it, it gives a good outline of today's topic, be impressed just over generally before we go into more detail. Sure. It has some similarity with the chart that we used also for the question of the dress, trying to show that the question of dress or beautification is not a matter of where aesthetic low focus only on women or tell women or suggest women what needs to be done, but it involves this joint responsibility of both male and

female, with some slight differences depending on the nature of the sexes. But and this left hand side, we have the division of deeds or acts, and Islam, the your normal definition that you had before mandatory or required, commendable, permissible,

detestable and forbidden. And then for each of these five categories of act again, we have

various

codes that deal with both males and females, others that are more suitably fitting to males by way of requirements, others that fit females more, certainly,

for example, under mandatory, there's nothing there, and the commendable for me, for example, it's commendable to grow beard, trimmed mustache, and for female it's commendable to use henna, and can discuss that a little later to kind of die for the hand kind of beautification

commendable also for both sides. That's why we have the check marks for both male and female

dyeing gray hair, clipping nails, beatification for one's on spouse in the privacy of their own

On place or home.

Other aspects of personal hygiene relating to beautification, permissible, as usual is the others which are not specified otherwise. But to emphasize here or remind that the gold and silver are permissible for females but not for men's in Islam. Under the festival we having, we have the plucking of gray hair

kazaa, which is a kind of shaving of the hair, we can get to that also, our excesses excesses in fact could also be forbidden, it's too much.

Under forbidden category, we have a gold and silk for men's perfumes and makeup when they go outside for females have not inside their homes. And under the forbidden for both males and females, we have tattoos, wigs, plucking of eyebrows, finding the teeth, and non correctors plastic surgery. And then one item that relates more closely to a female, they tempting walk and talk.

I wonder if perhaps we could eventually getting to this one. I want to pressure you to go back and examine these categories. Now a little more closely beginning with the mandatory or the commendable acts. Could you develop the points that you've mentioned when you went through it? initially a little more perhaps. Okay, well, and the question of mandatory as you notice here, it's all blank, because that's different from the dress and the rest. There might be certain minimum requirements to cover by the parts or parts of the body that should be concealed. But of course, the question of certification, you can't have something that's really mandatory in essence that you would be sent

out if you don't do it. That's why it appears blank in this category. Under commendable However,

for men, it is a commendable act according to the teaching of the Prophet peace be upon him to grow a beard.

It doesn't mean that you don't have to trim it actually hear a comment that it should not exceed about that much. can hold it like that and cut the rest. So you can trim it if need be so that it looks nice, but it doesn't have to be excessively long also. And in fact, according to some jurist it is not only commendable, it's a it's it's really forbidden to shave the beard for a Muslim male, that both opinions others say that it is recommendable act on it. And if you do it, fine. If you don't do it, it's only the testament that you leave it.

The second aspect for me is also is to trim

the mustache. Now some people misinterpret that to mean shaving the moustache what as the text of the saying of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him dealing with the question of the mustache, he didn't say shave it, but he meant really helpful, which means shorten it so that the hair would not come over the lips and share with you when you're taking your kind of hygiene in nicely view.

for females, however, it is a commendable act to use some kind of dye for the hands. It's called henna. I think sometimes it's sold in some drugstores here in Canada and the US it's a kind of materials that you

make in a form of dough, almost put it with water and it's put in the hand for some time. And then it leaves a nice color in the hands. This is commendable on the authority of the Prophet peace be upon him that he recommended for women to do that this was not regarded as something of a display of too much beauty, it's a kind of soften the hand also has some benefits for that

the area that is commendable for both

males and females include the dyeing of the gray hair.

Again there is a saying of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him that this is something that again gives a unique identity for Muslims because others at this time did not use to dye the gray hair

except on the one case where the person is too old and his hair is all white. Then you can dye it but avoid the black because he dyed black if it sounds rather strange, but usually they use also the same material here henna could be used also for dyeing hair, as it's used for females use for the hands.

So this is again recommended.

clipping of the nails is also recommended. And that again shows that it is not appropriate for Muslim male or female. To grow needs some people do become very very long, which sometimes makes it different from human doc it looks sometimes like clothes. That's not recommended for either male or female.

The other thing that some people may not be aware of is that it is a commendable act in Islamic law, to beautify oneself for one's own spouse in the privacy of their homes. Some people sometimes get the wrong notion that because Islam emphasizes chastity and modesty and not displaying makeup when a woman goes outside of a house, that this means that you should never really use any makeup or beautify herself. Apart from that, actually, she is encouraged to do that in the privacy of her own home with her husband. Indeed, this is a mutual responsibility that some men are not aware of, like one Companion of the Prophet peace be upon him. His name is if not best, he said, I beautify myself,

for my wife as she beautifies herself for me. So there's nothing wrong with that, but again, not in front of other people who are not permissible to see the display of that beauty. And finally,

the for both sides also, other aspects of personal hygiene.

Could you explain more specifically, what this last item refers to this question of personal hygiene? What I was initially hesitant to put too much details on the chart, but since you asked the question I,

I said that there's nothing wrong really dealing with it because after all, even though it deals with some intimate and personal things, that's not stranger for the Muslim, because Islam is a complete way of life that covers all aspects of behavior, including the most intimate and personal. But the best way perhaps to answer your question is to refer to a saying of the Prophet peace be upon him, narrated both in Muslim and Bukhari, in which it says that the Prophet peace be upon him recommended five things for the Muslim as a commendable act.

circumcision that's for men,

removal of the hairs in the puberty area, and in the armpits, area.

shortening or thinning the mustache, and clipping the nails is five were mentioned. In the collection of habits by Muslim there's another saying of the Prophet also in which he

orders the companions narrate that he recommended that people should not leave their hair in this areas are their means without trimming or shaving or removing more than 40 days. In other words, one should not leave it more than 40 days without shaving or cleaning or clipping depending on on the situation. This is not only a matter of hygiene, it's actually related also to our topic here because it is one aspect of beautification.

Can we go back now into your chart and elaborate on the next two categories the permissible in the festival? Okay, as we mentioned before, in a question on the restroom, permissible usually is defined as any other act which is not defined otherwise, it's not defined as any of these other four categories.

So that's permissible for both males and females. I just included here for reminder that for females, but not males, it is permissible to use gold and silk, which are not permissible for males

in the category of detestable, that is acts which are not totally and completely forbidden in the sense of being measured mistakes, but hated mistakes that one should try to avoid include

plucking of the gray hair. Indeed, on this particular point, Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said that when a believer has a gray hair, it is his light, it is the light of the believer that he should not really stick out, should not be

I'm not talking of course about dying, you can die the gray hair but you're not supposed to pluck it off altogether.

Another detestable act which perhaps was not only known in the days of the Prophet peace be upon him, but it is still practiced today. In some cases. It's called an Arabic casa.

I almost translated translated it as it says, because it's very difficult to find an English word that exactly communicate the meaning you have to explain in a sentence

means sharing parts of the head and leaving the rest. Not trimming. You can shorten your head there is no restriction whether you're male or female, you can cut parts of your head is no restriction that they know that because that means that for example, you make a big hole and shave inside of your head and leave the rest or shave your hair and leave just an

It's a bit of hair at the end of the,

of the hair or one side or the other, this is forbidden. It's either you want to share with total you can share with you trim it fine, but, or leave it as it is. And again, aesthetically speaking doesn't look that attractive anyway. But there's a specific saying of the Prophet also against that.

And then excesses, even in things which are permissible. It is the festival to have excesses that might stimulate desire,

and lust and other sex indeed,

depending on the degree of excesses, if it's too much

of an access, it could even fall easily in the category of

the forbidden.

Okay, we go on into the final category, which is the forbidden and get some clarification of the items you have listed there. Sure. Well, on the first, there are things that are forbidden specifically to me, like I said before, the whole chart shows that most of the items are jointly for male and female. But there are some exceptions to that.

Why is gold and silver were are permissible to humans, they are forbidden,

or haram for Muslim males to use. And this I think we alluded to, in the question of discussion of dress also,

in return for that there is also something that seems to be more

strictly mentioned about females,

again, because of the natural differences of the sexes, and that's to put on their human makeup when they go outside. Again, I want to make clear, it does not say that a Muslim female, should not wear perfume, or may have any makeup, she can do that freely, so long as that is in the privacy of their own homes, without being exposed to other people who are not supposed to see that display of beauty. That's why we have this word, when they go outside the home.

This does not apply to me. And

to be clear,

for the simple reason that definitely a female putting flagger in the perfumes definitely would add a great deal of attraction to ourselves. And again, by nature, it becomes very tempting for males, I'm not saying that perfumes for males also is not that attractive. But again, in competitive degree, it's much more damaging, morally, if you get lots of women going around, plugins, perfumes or makeup.

Then on the issue, or questions that apply to both males and females, forbidden acts include the tattoos. And that's usually made by having a kind of needle in the skin, putting some dye in that it's a kind of

fooling around with the pure tradition and nature of Allah subhanaw taala. And furthermore, usually this is of a permanent nature, if I understand it, it's very difficult to, to take out. So that's forbidden for both males and females,

the wearing of wigs

and whether they are made of natural hair, or

synthetic or artificial hair, that's forbidden also for both indeed the Prophet peace be upon him called the wigs. Or Lastly, which is the Arabic term for connecting hairs natural hair with other foreign hair as falsification the kind of giving a wrong impression

of what you've have, you've got

another aspect that has been emphasized in the saying of the Prophet also is the plucking of eyebrows.

And actually the term used in some of those things is tactile, which means thinning of the

eyebrows, or as well as the practice in some cases, shaving or blacking all the eyebrows and drawing instead with the line with the pen or something of that sort.

I should indicate here however, that

there is another difference

which was mentioned in the collection of hobbies by actor mizzi that a woman came to Ayesha delana was the wife of was the wife of the Prophet, peace be upon him. And she told her how she thought she asked her whether a woman should or could remove parts of the hair that might be in her face, by way of beautifying for her husband. And her answers. His answer to that was amici uncle, Mr. Fatty let's remove that

Things that are embarrassing are not good, as much as you could some interpret that as meaning that a couple of hairs here or they're not really thinning the eyebrows, but a couple of hairs here there which are unusual for women, for example, to grow, and might be embarrassing. There is nothing wrong of removing them. Even though some jurists are relatively more strict on that this is should be no removal of heads off. But again, there is that

reference to the possibility of just a very minor

kind of adjustments.

Going back again, to the other forbidden x, we have the fighting of teeth. This is a custom that I'm sure is not common nowadays. But it used to be that some women in order to look younger, they would find that is to make it look smaller, as young, because you know, when the person gets older, perhaps this, this might look comparatively bigger. So they find it to make it

like I said, stuff coming, but that was one of the practices. The other thing also is to have the kind of widening of the gaps between the teeth, which was regarded by some women also as a sign of beauty. So they get the file and try to make space in between the teeth. This also the Prophet peace be upon him has forbidden this called leads.

The other one is called wash,

trimming of the teeth. And I'm sure, in addition to the fact that it is forbidden in Islam, I'm sure that from the medical standpoint, to file the teeth probably never held out, right. It's not very healthy and not very good in the long run. And that was said by the prophet 1400 years ago before dentist, right? And we're able to discover these type of things. And also,

one more item that's forbidden for both also is the what I call the non corrective plastic surgeon. When plastic surgery is mentioned what is meant by non corrective or unnecessary plastic surgery? What was the situation for example, where a person is involved in an accident and requires plastic surgery? Well, there's nothing wrong with this one. Because when a person is, you know, is involved in an accident, and there is a kind of disfiguration. By having a plastic surgery, you're not really trying to change the creation of a law into something that you feel is more beautiful or anything you're simply trying to correct. And that's why is the word corrective, you're trying simply to

correct the damage that has

occurred as a result of the accident. Not only this, some jurist also indicated that if a person is born with some kind of deformity, which causes embarrassment to him, that there is nothing wrong with also having plastic surgery because you're just bringing to the natural state. What is really meant by non directive or unnecessary plastic surgery are the cases that you hear about sometimes in the media, that somebody Mashallah he's got a good face and good nose and everything, but he feels that if his nose was a little smaller, he would look more beautiful or she looks and they go on spending 1000s of dollars just to change the shape of the nose, which is which is okay. Or somebody

you know, who wants to have a facelift, a woman you heard about that more recently among famous women, all that, you know, to look younger, in her 60s, she makeup operation of face lifting so that she appears the same thing applies to men as well. They're not exempt from this criticism. Also, from this clinic standpoint, some men spend 1000s of dollars to try to plant hair because they are bald, they want to become young again, you know, this all

kind of

attitude towards life and over obsession with this materialistic or material physical appearance, unnecessarily and unduly has been forbidden Islam and regarded as something of an aberration really.

rebellion against the creation

of God.

Now, for the benefit of some of our viewers, I wonder perhaps you might be able to give some additional touched on some of the machinery come along, but you might get some additional documentation on some of these robots.

Like reference or authentication, right? There's there's there's a number of documentation that you find both in the Quran and in the saying of the Prophet peace be upon him. Some are more general Some are very specific and relate to this particular category. Among the general things is a verse in chapter 14, verse 119.

In the Quran, which indicates that this kind of changing in the creation of God is a satanic inspiration. And it talks about Satan that he says, and I will order or commend them, that's command human beings or entice them to change the creation of God.

This is one but again like I said, this applies to just undo unneeded

type of plastic surgery. But in addition, there are also a number of specific saying of the Prophet peace be upon him for example, in the collection of Muslim it says that the Prophet cursed and worship Mehta will miss Toshima Well, why should I told Mr. Schirra which means a woman who makes the two and the woman who goes and ask for another woman to make the two for her as the woman who filed her teeth, or ask another woman to find her teeth for her? In Bukhari and Muslim there is a specific mention also a prohibition of those who make gaps between their teeth to look more beautiful in another saying, which is narrated, both in Bukhari tirmidhi and Abu Dawood. The Prophet

again cursed those women who joined their hair with another head, ie the wigs, natural or otherwise, and also those who pluck or thin their eyebrows. I'd like just to comment here that many of these sayings of the prophet may use the female gender, simply because women are more likely to do this practice. But as one jurist Dr. Yusuf Ricardo indicated that if this is forbidden for a woman, it will be even more forbidden. For men. It doesn't have to be specified. I mean, if a woman is not supposed to falsify her appearance by wearing a wig, so it is even more logical that men should abstain Muslim magic abstain from committing this type of Acts, or the feminists that we have left

remaining on the program, we have one other area that we haven't

touched yet in the area forbidden and that is the question of tempting walk in talk to shed some light on that one perhaps. Okay, well, this was included, largely under

you know, codes for females, even though it may apply, you can also still think of men would like to walk and talk in such a way as to seduce women, but sometimes get sick and imagine a man trying to walk in. temptingly that's why I put it more logically under awaited. This has also a reference in the Quran and more particularly in the 24th chapter, and the 33rd chapters in the Quran, there is mention of that, and actually dismiss mostly with women, to show that, first of all, walking

wild stampeding to the ground with feet, or shaking the body to attract attention to themselves would be contrary to this whole concept of chesty. Because it's not just an outwardly display of piety. And then the actual movement might be stimulating or attempting to other people. In terms of talking also, there is no problem of Muslim male hearing and other female talking, even if she's not his wife, or sister or mother. There's nothing wrong with that there's no evidence whatsoever that that's forbidden. But the Quran directs in chapter 33, that when a woman talks, she should speak in a way that does not seem to be seductive or interpreted as seductive by the men, that it was

attacked, what was his feeling? She should still speak decently, but not necessarily, in a way that that is tempting.

Well,

is there any other major aspect to the writing to this whole question of safeguarding of honor, which needs to be mentioned before we move on to our next program? Our next topic? Well, very briefly, considering the time we have there are two more things. One is privacy. privacy in a specific sense that if a male and female are not legitimate onto each other, and are not legitimately married, are separately alone in a park or apartment, that's forbidden, certainly in Islam, if others are present, then there's nothing wrong with that, and there's a good cause behind it. And finally, there's an aspect that relates to the penal law in Islam. It's called uncas, which

means a person who accuses another chaste woman in the matter of her honor that's regarded as a criminal act, which is very punishable and has a specific punishment in the penal law.

Okay, we've exhausted our time for today. We want to thank you for watching our program. invite you back next week when we'll talk about safeguarding of property in Islam. Thank you for watching. Assalamu alaikum peace be unto you