Are ear and nose piercings allowed?

Why ear piercing is allowed

The scholars did not treat piercing as a ruling with no basis. They reasoned from what the Prophet ﷺ saw and did not object to. Ibn Hajar records that when the Prophet ﷺ urged the women to give charity on the day of Eid, they reached for their ears and throats — the jewellery was there to be pulled off.

"The Prophet ﷺ ordered them to give charity, and I saw them reaching toward their ears and their throats."— Sahih al-Bukhari 5883, from Ibn Abbas

The argument the scholars draw is the silence of the Lawgiver. Pierced ears were the custom of the women around him, and he neither forbade it nor commanded it removed. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah states the ruling directly: piercing a girl's ear for adornment is permitted — Imam Ahmad stated it explicitly — while he disliked it for a boy. The distinction is need: a woman needs adornment, a boy does not.

The Permanent Committee gave the same reasoning in its fatwa: it is permitted because it is for adornment, not for harm or for changing Allah's creation, and because it was known in the pre-Islamic period and in the Prophet's ﷺ time and he did not forbid it — he and his Companions affirmed it.

Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen added the practical point: the pain is slight, and if it is done in infancy it heals quickly.

The nose: permitted where it is custom

Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen was asked about piercing a girl's ear or nose for adornment. He answered that ear piercing is fine, then said of the nose that he did not recall the scholars discussing it, but that in his view it involves mutilation and disfigurement of the creation — though others might not see it that way. His conclusion sets the condition:

"If the woman is in a country where adorning the nose is considered adornment and beautification, then there is no harm in piercing the nose to hang jewellery on it."— Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen, Majmu' Fatawa Ibn Uthaymeen

Shaykh Abd al-Muhsin al-Abbad gave the same answer: if it is the custom of the women to adorn themselves this way, there is no harm, and it is like ear piercing. IslamWeb reached the same conclusion by analogy with the ear.

The disagreement is real, and it turns on custom rather than on the act itself. Al-Shubramalisi's commentary on al-Minhaj held that piercing the nostril is not permitted, taking the texts as confined to the ears — unless the people of a region customarily regard it as adornment, in which case it is like ear piercing. Ibn Hajar al-Haytami's commentary is reported there as saying it appears forbidden absolutely, because there is no adornment in it to excuse it except among a small group, and a small group carries no weight against the general custom. Ibn Abidin, the Hanafi, took the opposite line: if it is something women adorn themselves with, as in some lands, it is like piercing for an earring.

Where the line is drawn

IslamWeb's fatwa on the subject sets out the conditions that decide the wider question, and they are worth stating plainly:

• It must be for adornment: the purpose is beautification, not harm or alteration of creation for its own sake.
• It must follow the custom of Muslim women: this is what separates the ear from the nose in the disagreement above.
• It must not cause harm or significant pain: the scholars weighed the pain and found it slight, especially in infancy.
• It must not be specific to non-Muslim women: if the practice marks a woman out as imitating a non-Muslim custom rather than adorning herself, the ruling changes.
• A husband's approval does not make it lawful: IslamWeb notes explicitly that a husband seeing no objection does not legalise an act that is otherwise prohibited.

Navel, lips and tongue

No classical scholar discussed piercing the navel, lips or tongue — these practices did not exist in the forms they take today. IslamWeb's fatwa says so directly, then gives the closer position: prohibition, for two reasons. The mutilation and infliction of pain is more evident in these, and women generally have no need of such adornment — it is closer to disfigurement than to beautification. The fatwa adds that such piercings are sometimes the custom of immoral women in morally collapsed societies, which is a further reason for caution.

This is not a case of the sources being silent and the answer being unavailable. The scholars applied the same criteria they used for the ear and nose — need, custom, harm, adornment — and those criteria point the other way here.

What this means in practice

If you are asking about ear piercing, the matter is settled and you can proceed. If you are asking about nose piercing, the answer depends on where you live and what the women around you do: in a society where it is a recognised form of adornment, it takes the ruling of the ear; where it is not, the safer course is to leave it, given that Ibn Hajar al-Haytami is reported to have forbidden it outright. For navel, lip or tongue piercing, the position is prohibition.

Key takeaways

• Ear piercing for a female is permitted by the four schools, the Permanent Committee and Shaykh Ibn Baz, on the basis that the Prophet ﷺ saw it and did not forbid it.
• Nose piercing is permitted where it is a recognised custom of adornment among the women of that society, and disputed where it is not.
• The deciding factors are adornment, custom, absence of harm, and not being distinctive to non-Muslim women.
• Navel, lip and tongue piercing have no classical precedent, and the closer position is prohibition.
• A husband's permission does not make a prohibited piercing lawful.

Further reading

• Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Tuhfat al-Mawdud, chapter on piercing the ear of a boy and a girl
• Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Fath al-Bari, Book of Clothing, chapter on the earring for women
• Muhammad al-Mukhtar al-Shanqiti, Ahkam al-Jiraha al-Tibbiyyah

And Allah knows best.