Women eye brows and Sabbath apes
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's
Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:
Dear brother
Assalam alaikum
Is it true that women should not shape their eyebrows or have any part of their
facial hair removed ?
In surah baqarah it has been mentioned that bani
jazzakallah khair
(There
may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum
does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from
our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
Women eye brows and Sabbath apes
In the
name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness.
Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray,
none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no
person, no grave, no prophet, no imam,
no dai, nobody!) worthy of
worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His
slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
Q-1:
Is it true that women should not shape their eyebrows or have any part of their
facial hair removed ?
Sahih Al-Bukhari
7.815 Narrated by Abdullah
Allah has cursed those women who practice tattooing and those who
get themselves tattooed, and those who remove their eye-brow hairs,
and those who create a space between their teeth artificially to look
beautiful, and such women as change the features created by Allah. Why then should I not curse those whom the
Prophet (saws) has cursed?
In light
of the above hadith, it is the unanimous
opinion of all the scholars and jurists in Islam that the plucking of eyebrows
is strictly forbidden for the believing woman in Islam.
Q-2: In surah baqarah it has been mentioned that bani
Allah
Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verses 65-66:
65 And well ye (Bani Israel)
knew those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath; We said
to them: "Be ye apes: despised and rejected."
66 So We made it an example
to their own time and to their posterity, and a lesson to those who fear Allah.
Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 7 Surah Aaraaf verses 163-166:
163 Ask them concerning the
town standing close by the sea. Behold!
They transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath.
For on the day of their Sabbath their fish did come to them openly,
holding up their heads; but on the day they had no Sabbath they came not: thus
did We make a trial of them for they were given to transgression.
164 When some of them said:
"why do ye preach to a people whom Allah will destroy or visit with a
terrible punishment?" Said the
preachers: "to discharge our duty to your Lord, and perchance they may
fear him."
165 When they disregarded the
warnings that had been given them We rescued those who forbade evil; but We
visited the wrong-doers with a grievous punishment because they were given to
transgression.
166 When in their insolence
they transgressed (all) prohibition, We said to them: "Be ye apes
despised and rejected."
Allah
Subhanah commanded the Jews in the Old Testament to observe the Sabbath as a
covenant between Him and them; and the Law stated that the Jews were not
allowed to do any worldly work on this day of the Sabbath or Saturday.
Bible, Book of Exodus 31: 14-16
14. “Observe the Sabbath, because it is Holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to
death. Whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people.”
15. For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a
Sabbath of rest, Holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath Day
must be put to death.
16. The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for
the generations to come, as a lasting covenant.
The Jews
would constantly abuse the Laws of the Taurah after having made a covenant with
Allah and His Prophets to observe them.
Whatever amongst the Law suited them, they would follow; and whatever
did not suit them, they would try to circumvent the law by finding a ‘heela’ or
legal loophole in the Law. Thus,
whenever the Law did not suit their wishes, they would try to follow the
‘letter of the Law’, but not the ‘spirit of the Law.’ Due to their constant and unrepentant
transgression, at long last, Allah Subhanah tested a community of fisherman by
the sea whose profession and means of livelihood was fishing.
On every
day other than the Sabbath, there would be no fish; but on the Day of the
Sabbath, there would be abundant fish in the sea as a trial from their
Lord. Because they were not allowed to
work on the Sabbath Day, the evil law-breakers amongst them devised a plan to
circumvent the Law of the Sabbath! They
made a channel or pool from the sea and enclosed it with a barrier, and kept
the barrier open for the fish to swim into the pool. When there appeared abundant fish in the
channel on the Sabbath Day, they would close the barrier on the Sabbath Day
thus entrapping the fish in the pool; but they would not remove the fish until
the next day after the Sabbath. In their evil minds they claimed that since
they did not remove the fish until the day after the Sabbath, they were within
the Law; not realizing that closing the escape route of the fish was itself
done on the Day of the Sabbath, when they were not allowed to do any material
work! This is how they would circumvent
the Law of the Sabbath
Due to
their constant transgression of the Laws of the Lord, and in to their worldly
temptation, they failed in this final test from their Lord and the Wrath and
Anger of their Lord became justified upon them; and the evil doers amongst them
were transformed into apes as an example to the people of their times and their
posterity.
Whatever
written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance,
and whatever of error is of me. Allah
Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.
Your Brother in Islam,
Burhan
Wister