When Is Cosmetic Treatment Permissible in Islam?

Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick

Question

Is treating age-related wrinkles permissible in principle, and where do maintenance, treatment of sun damage, microneedling, red light therapy, and tretinoin fall?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate.

The principle is shorter than the list of treatments. What the Sharia forbids is permanent alteration of a sound created form for the sake of beauty alone. Caring for the body and repairing damage done to it is a different matter, and everything you have named falls on that side of the line.

Criteria of Permissible and Unlawful Skincare

The prohibition rests on the hadith of Ibn Mas’ud (Allah be pleased with him), in which the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) cursed those who tattoo, pluck their eyebrows, and file their teeth for beauty, thereby altering the creation of Allah. [Bukhari; Muslim]

Note the qualifier in the text itself: for beauty. Imam Nawawi draws the ruling straight from it. What is forbidden is doing such things for the purpose of beautification; where there is a need, such as medical treatment or a defect, there is nothing wrong with it. [Nawawi, Sharh Sahih Muslim]

That a visible sign of aging may be treated is settled by the Sunna. When Abu Quhafa was brought on the day the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) entered Mecca, his hair and beard white, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Change this with something, and avoid black.” [Muslim]

Grey hair is age itself, and he ordered it changed. Aging, then, is not a category the Sharia prohibits.

Maintenance, Treatment, and Prohibited Change

There are three categories, and only the third is unlawful.

Maintenance is the care of a trust. Cleansing, moisturizing, and sunscreen preserve the body Allah has entrusted to you.

Treatment involves repairing damage, and in this case, your medical viewpoint is very significant. The most noticeable kind of facial aging is photoaging, which is damage accumulated due to ultraviolet radiation rather than the form that Allah intended it to take.

Sun damage is indeed damage. The need to treat it falls exactly within the exception stated by Imam Nawawi, and modern dermatology doesn’t alter the principle so much as it shows us how much of what we refer to as aging was, in fact, never genuine aging at all.

Changes made for the sake of beauty alone consist in the permanent alteration of a sound feature, such as reshaping a healthy nose, getting a tattoo, or having surgical work carried out on a part of the face that is in no way defective.

According to Ustadh Farid Dingle, with regard to our case, surgical procedures involve altering what Allah created in you and are therefore prohibited except when they are corrective, while non-surgical procedures are permitted provided they cause no short- or long-term harm.

Your Specific Treatments

Tretinoin is a topical medication that repairs photodamage; it treats the condition but does not reverse the changes that have already occurred. It is lawful.

Red light therapy is non-invasive and stimulates the skin’s natural repair process. It is lawful.

Superficial dermastamping and microneedling have no permanent effect; they cause a controlled superficial injury so that the skin is able to repair itself, which is simply the body carrying out what Allah has made it to do.

The procedure is permissible provided that Ustadh Farid specifies: a qualified practitioner, sterile technique, and no lasting harm. It is important to ensure that any serum used does not contain forbidden ingredients.

Principle and Practical Guidance

Look after your skin, protect it from the sun, and address the damage it has already caused. You should apply sunscreen every day, since it alone will do more than all the other things on your list combined. Reserve the scalpel for cases where true correction is needed.

You needn’t remove every line from your face, since a face that has lived has its own dignity; treat the damage, keep the body in trust, and leave the rest alone. Allah is beautiful and loves beauty, and He is the One who has written our years.

And Allah knows best.

[Shaykh] Irshaad Sedick
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Irshaad Sedick was raised in South Africa in a traditional Muslim family. He graduated from Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Strand, Western Cape, under the guidance of the late world-renowned scholar Shaykh Taha Karaan (Allah have mercy on him), where he taught.

Shaykh Irshaad received Ijaza from many luminaries of the Islamic world, including Shaykh Taha Karaan, Shaykh Muhammad Awama, Shaykh Muhammad Hasan Hitu, and Mawlana Abdul Hafeez Makki, among others.

He is the author of the text “The Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A Hujjah or not?” He has been the Director of the Discover Islam Centre, and for six years, he has been the Khatib of Masjid Ar-Rashideen, Mowbray, Cape Town.

Shaykh Irshaad has fifteen years of teaching experience at some of the leading Islamic institutes in Cape Town). He is currently building an Islamic podcast, education, and media platform called ‘Isnad Academy’ and has completed his Master’s degree in the study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg. He has a keen interest in healthy Prophetic living and fitness.