Qur'an and commentary: Dyeing the hair black is FORBIDDEN

[Bluebear]

http://www.witness-pioneer.org/vil/hadeeth/riyad/17/chap294.htm



1637. Jabir (May Allah be pleased with him) said: Abu Quhafah, father of Abu Bakr (May Allah be pleased with them) was presented to the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) on the day of the conquest of Makkah and his head and beard were snow white. The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "Change it (i.e., dye it and avoid black colour).''
.

Commentary: Abu Quhafah was the Kunyah (nick-name) of Abu Bakr's father. His real name was Usman bin `Amir. He had embraced Islam on the day Makkah was conquered by the Muslims. "Saghamah'' is a herb which grows in mountains and is completely white. Since Abu Quhafah's hair were gray, the Prophet (PBUH) ordered him to dye them but forbade him from turning them black. Thus, we learn that except for inevitable circumstances, dying the hair of head and beard in black is prohibited.

[Spazito]

1. Very interesting!

Thanks for posting this!

[aquart]

2. Vanity over religion?

[Spazito]

5. I don't tend to think so....

given all that has been written about him and his fundamentalist practice of the Islamic religion. His followers and those he would want to influence would know the dying of hair black is forbidden according to the Qur'an.

Edited to add: It seems this quote may have come from the Hadith, which "constitutes for most Muslims the second set of religious scriptures - almost, but not quite as important as the Qur'an."

http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/islam/blfaq_islam_hadith.htm

[pnwmom]

7. So what would his followers think? That his beard turned itself black?

Another possibility is that it's fake, that he has no beard so he can slip around unrecognized more easily.

[Spazito]

10. It is more likely his followers would see him as betraying their

fundamental beliefs by not adhering to Islamic law as found in the Qur'an and the Haditha. The result would be less devotees volunteering to serve the cause, the opposite effect to what, supposedly, the intent of bin Laden speaking would be.

[aquart]

17. Their talmud?

[Spazito]

18. At first, I was not sure what your question meant as I have not

made a study of either faiths, Islamic or Jewish, but I was intrigued by your question so did a rudimentary search on the Talmud and found that the Talmud also has two components of which, until reading this, I was not aware:

"The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah (c. 200 CE), the first written compendium of Judaism's Oral Law; and the Gemara (c. 500 CE), a discussion of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Tanakh."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud


So, if I am understanding your reference and question, it seems the answer might well be yes. The question I would have is whether what is written in the Haditha carries the same 'weight' as that which is in the Qur'an or whether it has slightly less influence because, if it has slightly less importance in terms of adherence then the coloring of hair to black may well not be as rigid a dictate then if it were contained within the Qur'an, I simply don't know.

The difference seems to be the Talmud is two components of equal importance whereas the Qur'an is the dominant component and the Haditha is supplementary to the Qur'an as opposed to being a part of it.

I hope I understood your question and responded accordingly, if not, I apologize but it certainly spurred me to do some more research and furthered my understanding, if only a little bit, regarding the Talmud, I thank you for that!

[aquart]

25. Thank you. That's exactly what I asked.

[The Straight Story]

3. There are a ton of ways to intepret the Qur'an, the bible, the constitution

You follow the one that is best suited for your own desires :)

[lynnertic]

4. What's the difference between the Quran and the Hadeeth? Because this was quoted from the Hadeeth.

Cruising the site I see that they're two different books.

Thanks.

[Spazito]

6. Here is what I found, it seems to be the Hadith

Hadith literally means "tradition," and it constitutes for most Muslims the second set of religious scriptures - almost, but not quite as important as the Qur'an. Collected into authoritative books, these represent reports about the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad and his immediate followers while he was alive.

Why did the Hadith develop? According to tradition, once Muhammad died, his followers may have still had the Qur'an, but they no longer had his personal, authoritative guidance. When a religious group is based solely on personal charisma, it has little chance of surviving the death of its founder.

In order to continue, religious communities need some sort of legal and official framework. The Qur'an filled that role, but not enough - Muhammad himself was too personally active in the early development of the Muslim community in a way that Jesus, for example, could not have been.

What the Muslim community needed was an established, authoritative reference of tradition. They needed something to refer to when making decisions about the many issues which were not addressed in the Qur'an. This role, then, was filled by the development of the Hadith.

more

http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/islam/blfaq_islam_hadith.htm

[Crabby Appleton]

8. But then there is this from ummah.net

Some of the early Muslims, including some sahabah such as Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, 'Uqbah ibn 'Amr, al-Hassan, al-Hussein, Jarir, and others permitted the use of black dye. Some scholars, on the other hand, do not consider the use of black hair dye as permissible except during time of war, when the enemy might be impressed by the fact that all the soldiers of the Muslim army look young.

http://www.ummah.net/library/dieinghair/

[Lucinda]

9. If he can justify his war, he can justify a bottle of Miss Clairol

:)

[Timex]

11. he's not a true Muslim

I heard that most Muslims don't believe that the Taliban, Qaeda, Binladen, etc... to be following proper Islam since they choose to pick the rules they like and ignore ones they don't like such as killing innocent people and what not.

[SidDithers]

12. I thnk you've got it wrong...

it is forbidden because black is the original colour:

As for black dye, the mukhtar mazhab (most favoured opinion) supports its vehement prohibition." The underlying reason for it's prohibition lies in the fact that black dye resembles the original black colour of the hair (Mirqat). In other words it tantamount to deception and delusion.

http://www.darululoom-deoband.com/english/books/masailofhair.htm

However, an exception is made in times of war, so that the enemy will be intimidated by armies of warriors who all appear to be in the prime of their youth.

Some of the early Muslims, including some Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) such as Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas, `Uqbah ibn `Amr, Al-Hassan, Al-Hussayn, Jareer, and others permitted the use of black dye. Some scholars do not consider the use of black dye as permissible except during time of war, with possibility of making the enemy thrown off balance by seeing all Muslim soldiers in their blossoming youth.

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503544220

Masa'lah: Black dye which has the similitude of the original blackness of the hair is haram for all save the mujahideen. (Muslim warriors)

http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=102&CATE=90


Sid

[Cha]

14. Ahhh! They can be

incognito in time of war..yeah, maybe.

[Cha]

13. I would think so! They're not

even suppose to play guitar! And we're to believe the devout believer osama dyed his hair?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

15. so Dark-Brown is ok?

:popcorn:

[NuttyFluffers]

16. yes, as well as navy and charcoal

it's not about the spirit of the word, it's about the literal of course! :crazy:

[Sanctified]

19. That would mean something if Osama did not just cherry pick his beliefs from the Koran. n/t

[spoony]

20. Precisely.

[cgrindley]

21. That they are there to be cherry picked is why the Koran is worthless

like so many other of the world's so-called sacred texts, it contains a significant amount of hate. He wouldn't be able to pick and choose sections from that book in order to justify terrorism if the Koran only contained words of peace.

[kenny blankenship]

22. What if I make my hair black or jazz up my highlights in "post"?

in post-production, that is? It's trivial to colorize selected parts of a low quality video signal to achieve that hair color that you've always dreamed of but thought you could only get from an expensive salon.

Does the Koran forbid the altering of video, or is it just the application of chemical dyes to the hair?

[Spazito]

23. I was doing some research in regard to bin Laden and the transcript

from the most recent video and found this reference to the Haditha and bin Laden:


UBL: (...Inaudible...) when people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse. This is only one goal; those who want people to worship the lord of the people, without following that doctrine, will be following the doctrine of Muhammad, peace be upon him. (UBL quotes several short and incomplete Hadith verses, as follows): "I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad." "Some people may ask: why do you want to fight us?" "There is an association between those who say: I believe in one god and Muhammad is his prophet, and those who don't (...inaudible...) "Those who do not follow the true fiqh. The fiqh of Muhammad, the real fiqh. They are just accepting what is being said at face value."

I found this in the transcript of the 2001 bin Laden video, here is the link:

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/12/13/tape.transcript/

It would seem by this, assuming the 2001 tape of bin Laden is genuine (I believe it is) bin Laden holds the tenets of the Haditha to be equal to the Qur'an and would follow them accordingly or, at least, want to be seen as following them accordingly.

[LostInAnomie]

24. It's good when religion deals with the really important issues.

Certainly, God's position on dyeing one's hair should be far more clearly articulated than his position on the killing of innocents. I like it when priorities are straight. :eyes:

[Malikshah]

26. If I remember correctly-- hennah was often used

Many of the caliphs, ulama', etc. were said to henna their beards--

[JCMach1]

27. It is quite common to die beards in Arabia, but especially in PAKISTAN

Any Pakistani barber (who are the best in the world by the way) can do this in about 10 min.

It is quite common even among the most conservative men here. I have even seen Imams who dye.

This is why our 'so called' experts on the region should actually visit once in awhile.