AZislam.com

The Law of Straightening Hair in Islam

Review by : Yuli SE., MM

Have a straight and neat hair is certainly a pride for women. Besides easy to manage, straight hair also seems to give the impression of beauty and a feminism. One way to get it is by straightening your hair and currently it can be done anywhere in the beauty salon or independently at home.

Well, being beautiful is indeed a pleasant idea, either to be enjoyed alone for your own happiness or to please your loved ones, where there is a virtue of the wife serving her husband. Moreover, all women love it when they get praise.

But, in this case, it does not mean that the person who has a wavy or curly hair is bad and not attractive. Actually, it all depends on how you take care of yourself and your self-confidence. If you really prefer straight hair then you change the original style of your hair by straightening it, is it allowed in Islam?

To better understand it, let us take a look at the following explanation.

Straightening Hair and the Prohibition of Changing God’s Creation

“So I (Satan) really will tell them to change God’s creation.” (Surah An-Nisa’: 199). It implies the meaning that Satan always lead humans to sin by feeling ungrateful for everything they have and the eagerness to change the look how God create them.

“Allah cursed the woman who was tattooed and who asked to be tattooed, who pulled out the hair of the eyebrows and asked for the hair to be pulled from the eyebrows, and the woman who stretched her teeth for beauty. They have changed God’s creation.” (Bukhari)

God has arranged about what can and cannot be done related to change the creation of man where the purpose of human creation is to worship, In the hadith, it is not related to the hair, but in the sense that it is related to straighten the hair if the original form of the hair is not straight.

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Straightening Hair According to the Fatwa Commission in Saudi Arabia

It is permissible for women to style their hair as long as they do not follow the model of the infidels. Another condition, she could not reveal her hair to the men besides her muhrim. But, do not go to the salon to do this. Because if she goes out of the house, it will cause slander (a temptation for men) or she will fall into the forbidden thing. Salon workers can be women who are not religious (so unreliable and can open their shame) or even worse if the worker is a man, clearly, she is forbidden to show her hair to them. (Syaikh Sholih bin Fauzan Al Fauzan hafizhohullah (one of the members of the Fatwa Commission in Saudi Arabia, Al Lajnah Ad Daimah lil Buhuts Al ‘Ilmiyyah wal Ifta’))

Law of Straightening Hair According to MUI

But according to the MUI, the law of straightening hair depends on the purpose and impact. “If the goal and its impact are negative, then it is forbidden.”

On the contrary, if the goals and impacts are positive, then it is permissible, even suggested “said the deputy secretary of the MUI Fatwa Commission Asrorun Ni’am shaleh in Jakarta. As for the illegitimate law in straightening hair, the Forum of Islamic Boarding School Boarding Schools [FMP3] produced in East Java in Lirboyo, Kediri, must be understood in full in its context so as not to mislead the public, said Asrorun Ni’am shaleh, who is also a lecturer in the Shari’ah Faculty and the Law of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. Ustadz Darul Azka (30), one of the formators of the FMP3 Commission, said that this fatwa was aimed primarily at women who were single or not married.

The conclusion of the Laws of Straightening Hair in Islam

It can be done as long as there are good intentions that come with it, such as pleasing her husband and the desire to be able to look beautiful in front of her husband. The process of straightening hair must also be carried out in an Islamic way, for example using ingredients that are halal and do not contain dangerous elements and not carried out by the opposite sex who are not muhrim.
If the intention is to straighten the hair to show off and make her become arrogant and become someone who likes to be noticed by the opposite sex, then the matter makes sin.
Straightening hair is done for your own convenience, for example when you have hair that is messy and hard to comb until it causes hair disease then it is allowed.
It must not be accompanied by prohibited things such as painting black hair or changing eyebrows which are prohibited.
It should not cause something that tortures yourself like insisting on straightening hair even when you do not have money so you use illegitimate money instead.
It should not be excessive, for example, straightening your hair repeatedly until it is as perfect as possible and spending a lot of money because God does not like His servants who do wasteful things.

Everything returns to your intention, if indeed more good is done then it becomes something that is permissible.

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Straightening Hair for Intention of Self Comfort and Husband’s Husbandry

Now you already understand how the law of straightening hair in Islam and the best is if done with the intention of making your husband happy.

That has been explained in the following verse regarding the virtue of pleasing the husband. One of which is by presenting the best of self for the husband so that it becomes the way of reward and increasing love with the husband.

“The best of the wives is pleasurable if you see it, obey it if you order it, and keep yourself and your possessions at the time you go.” (Hadith of shahih: Narrated by at-Tirmidhi (No. 1174), from Shahabat Mu’adz bin Jabal radhiyallaahu ‘anhu)
“The world is full of pleasure and the best of pleasure is the wife that is shaihat.” (HR Muslim (w. 261 H))
“There is nothing better than you have earned after the taqwa to Allah than the shalihah wife; if her husband ruled she was faithful if she saw it would be nice if she gave her share a good deal, if her husband was absent she kept her and her husband’s property.” (HR Ibn Mâjah)
“Among the factors of the happiness of the son of Adam is a beautiful wife, a beautiful place of residence, and a good vehicle.” (HR Al-Hakim)
“Do not do that! If I had the right to rule someone to prostrate to man, I would have ordered a wife to prostrate to her husband. For the substance that he handed me, a wife did not fulfill the duty of her Lord, before fulfilling her duty to her husband. If the husband wants his wife, then she has to fill it, even while on the saddle.” (HR Al-Bayhaqî)