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Men Wearing Make-up And Jewelry
Are men allowed to wear jewelry or make-up (henna, kajal, etc.)? What would the ruling on this be in context of the following Hadith:
An effeminate man (mukhannath) who had dyed his hands and feet with henna was brought to the Prophet (ﷺ). He asked: What is the matter with this man? He was told: “Messenger of Allah! He imitates the look of women.” So he issued an order regarding him and he was banished to an-Naqi’. The people said: Messenger of Allah! Should we not kill him? He said: I have been prohibited from killing people who pray. AbuUsamah said: Naqi’ is a region near Medina and not a Baqi’. – Sunan Abi Dawud 4928
“The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) cursed those men who behave effeminately and those women whose behavior is masculine.” – Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2785
Salam
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3 Replies
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Men Wearing Make-up And Jewelry
updated 2 years, 2 months ago
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Men and women are not supposed to adopt femininity and masculinity respectively. However an adornment which is considered for either of them or for men only, men can adopt it. It is the standard cultural norms which tell what adornments are for which gender. It may be different in different cultures. The person has to decide accordingly.
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Cultural norms are different everywhere, but they are also different in time; change comes from the actions of those within the culture. 30 years ago it was less common for men in the Western countries to wear makeup, now many more do. This situation only arose because men started to use makeup more, despite it being against standard norms, and now it has become the new norm. In the practice you are describing, of sticking to the standard norms, it would have been disliked for Muslim men to do some thing XYZ in the past because it was not the norm then, but it would be permissible now. Or vice versa, where something permissible in the past becomes impermissible now. Sticking to this idea of standard norms seems to condemn Muslims to playing catch-up with the rest of the world, where they can’t experiment with or expand cultural norms, they must simply follow behind them. This does not seem like a logical situation.
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Men wearing makeup is not a norm in any western country. Some men do, however, it’s far from being a norm.
Time is not of any concern. If some adornment was not considered a norm in a particular place at a particular time then it was haram for Muslims in that location at that time too.
Muslims are not a nation in a single location. They’re spread across the world and part of many cultures. If an adornment is considered normal for men in a particular culture at a particular time, it is considered halal for Muslim men too, as long as it doesn’t violate any moral laws or has any aspect of polytheism in it.
There’s no harm in Muslims playing catch up with the rest of the world in the field of fashion. Their focus should be to achieve leading positions in the matters of morality, education, science, and many other fields for the benefit of the humankind in this world as well as achieving their best for the hereafter.
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