Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- Islam pays due attention to the issue of beautification and adornment, particularly among married spouses. Both a wife and a husband are highly encouraged to take care of their appearance so as to please each other.
2- As for plucking the hair between the eyebrows, a woman may do this, particularly to please her husband.
Answering your question, Dr. Wael Shehab, PhD in Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University and currently the Imam of the Downtown Toronto Masjid in Canada, states:
Thank you for your question. May Allah Almighty deepen your faith and keep you steadfast in the straight path of Islam.
Regarding your question, let’s first consider the following:
1- Islam generally encourages Muslims to appear neat, tidy and clean; this applies equally to males and females. Greater emphasis in this matter, however, has been placed on married couples more than others; Ibn Abbas said, “I prepare myself for my spouse, and she prepares herself for me!”
2- A woman is not allowed to adorn herself or wear make-up in order to attract men other than her husband.
3- The word used in the Prophet’s hadith that disallows removing facial hair is nams in Arabic, which means plucking the eyebrows.
Muslim scholars agree, therefore, that the prohibition in the Prophet’s hadith “May Allah’s curse be inflicted upon a woman who does nams (plucking), and a woman hired to do this” (Muslim) apply to plucking the eyebrows.
The majority of scholars, moreover, view that the prohibition in the above hadith is not general. They opine that unmarried woman is not allowed to pluck her eyebrows, though it may be allowed for her to fix a fault in the eyebrows hair as long as this is not meant to attract men or deceive suitors.
A married woman may, according the majority of scholars, pluck her eyebrows if her husband asks or allows so in order to please him.
Given the above, there is nothing wrong to remove the hair between the eyebrows, as it is not covered by the prohibition of nams or plucking the eyebrows. Eyebrows hair is that which grows on the bones above the eyes. It is commonly known for both men and women.
However, if you cannot decide your eyebrows hair, you may seek the help of your mother or sister in this regard. All in all, you may remove the untidy hair between the eyebrows in order to straighten your eyebrows hair.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.