(296) Chapter: Prohibition of Wearing False Hair, Tattooing and Filling of Teeth

Ibn Mas'ud (May Allah be pleased with him) said:
Allah has cursed those women who practise tattooing and those women who have themselves tattooed, and those women who get their hair removed from their eyebrows and faces (except the beard and the mustache), and those who make artificial spaces between their teeth for beauty, whereby they change Allah's creation. A woman started to argue with him, saying: "What is all this?" He replied: "Why should I not curse those whom the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) cursed and who are cursed in Allah's Book? Allah, the Exalted, has said in His Book:

"And whatsoever the Messenger (Muhammad (ﷺ)) gives you, take it; and whatsoever he forbids you, abstain (from it)." (59:7)

[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

Commentary: We learn from this Hadith that any effort to bring about a change in one's natural appearance is unlawful. Al-Washm (tattooing), Al-Washr (slimming the teeth), At-Tafalluj (to create gaps between the teeth), AnNams (the plucking of eyelashes) etc., come in the category of forbidden and unlawful fashions. It should be mentioned here that the use of henna is permissible because it does not bring about any such change which is forbidden. The use of henna is permissible subject to the condition that woman should not make its display before any man who is not a Mahram (Mahram is a person with whom it is basically not lawful to contract marriage).