Are Women Allowed to Cut Their Hair?
Question:
Aoa,
My question is regarding women cutting their hairs, although i know that it is not forbidden until unless it gives a non-muslim or a male(opposite gender) look but some of my relatives claimed that it is haram and they don't allow us..so i need a proper reference to show them and remove the misunderstandings.
jazakALLAH u khair
Answer:
Assalamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullah
Cutting hair per se cannot be called forbidden. We would need strong and explicit directive in the Qur’an or the Established Sunnah for such forbiddance and we don’t have any. This is also the view of many traditional scholars of Islam.
The hadiths that appear to prohibit cutting hair are referring to a kind of cutting hair that gives a look that is against the nature of a woman, as created by the Almighty.
I also do not believe that looking like non-Muslim women per se is an issue. Within the limits of modesty, as promoted in the Qur’an, looking similar to a non-Muslim is not forbidden.
There is a hadith in the book of Muslim, that is often used by the scholars who do not consider cutting hair for women to be forbidden:
Abu Salamah said: “The wives of the Prophet (pbuh) used to cut their hair until it came just below their ears.” (Muslim, al-Haydh, 320)
In his commentary on this hadith Al-Nawawi quotes from Qadhi Ayyaz that it appears that the wives of the prophet (pbuh) would do this after the death of the prophet (pbuh) to avoid embellishment and to be able to manage their hair better. Al-Nawawi then writes: “in this (hadith) is evidence of allowing cutting hair for women and God knows best” (Sharh al-Nawawi, 4:5).
I again repeat, to consider something haram we will need strong and explicit directives from the Qur'an or the Established Sunnah. We do not have such a directive with regard to women cutting their hair.
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February 2014
Aoa,
My question is regarding women cutting their hairs, although i know that it is not forbidden until unless it gives a non-muslim or a male(opposite gender) look but some of my relatives claimed that it is haram and they don't allow us..so i need a proper reference to show them and remove the misunderstandings.
jazakALLAH u khair
Answer:
Assalamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullah
Cutting hair per se cannot be called forbidden. We would need strong and explicit directive in the Qur’an or the Established Sunnah for such forbiddance and we don’t have any. This is also the view of many traditional scholars of Islam.
The hadiths that appear to prohibit cutting hair are referring to a kind of cutting hair that gives a look that is against the nature of a woman, as created by the Almighty.
I also do not believe that looking like non-Muslim women per se is an issue. Within the limits of modesty, as promoted in the Qur’an, looking similar to a non-Muslim is not forbidden.
There is a hadith in the book of Muslim, that is often used by the scholars who do not consider cutting hair for women to be forbidden:
Abu Salamah said: “The wives of the Prophet (pbuh) used to cut their hair until it came just below their ears.” (Muslim, al-Haydh, 320)
In his commentary on this hadith Al-Nawawi quotes from Qadhi Ayyaz that it appears that the wives of the prophet (pbuh) would do this after the death of the prophet (pbuh) to avoid embellishment and to be able to manage their hair better. Al-Nawawi then writes: “in this (hadith) is evidence of allowing cutting hair for women and God knows best” (Sharh al-Nawawi, 4:5).
I again repeat, to consider something haram we will need strong and explicit directives from the Qur'an or the Established Sunnah. We do not have such a directive with regard to women cutting their hair.
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February 2014
