Braiding and Length for Men's Hair

Fatwa ID: DI01036

Question

Al-Assalam'Alykum'

Can a man braid his hair?

How long can a man grow his hair?


Answer

Wa‘alaykum al-salām wa raḥmat Allah wa barakātuh.

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.

The general rule and attitude for appearance is that the one must resemble those who are to be resembled, and not resemble those who he is not and should not be.[1] In other words, for the particular issue of hair, a man cannot do anything that would liken him to either a woman or to the class of fussāq (indecent people) and kuffār.

Some scholars consider braiding the hair to be makrūh.[2]

The particular issue of the man’s hair length also falls under the aforementioned general rule, although some ʿulamāʾ determine this length to be the shoulders.[3]

And Allah knows best.

 

[1] Qārī Ṭayyib, al-Tashabbuh fi-l-Islām (Karachi: Maktabat al-Bushrā).

[2] Anwar Shāh Kashmīrī, Fayḍ al-Bārī ʿalā Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 1st ed. (Beirut: Dar al-Kotob al-Ilmiyyah), 6:103:

واعلم أنه كره للرجل أن يجعل أشعاره ضفائر، فإن قسمها بدون ضفر جاز

[3] ʿAlī b. Ṣulṭān al-Qārī (d. 1014 AH), Mirqāt al-Mafātīḥ Sharḥ Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ, ed. Jamāl ʿAytānī, 4th ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1437 AH - 2015), 8:301:

وعن ابن الحنظلية - رضي الله عنه - رجل من أصحاب النبي - صلى الله عليه وسلم - قال: قال النبي - صلى الله عليه وسلم-: «نعم الرجل خريم الأسدي، لولا طول جمته، وإسبال إزاره. فبلغ ذلك خريما، فأخذ شفرة، فقطع بها جمته إلى أذنيه، ورفع إزاره إلى أنصاف ساقيه» رواه أبو داود.

(لولا طول جمته) «لا شك أن طول الشعر ليس مذموما ولا جاء أمر بقطع ما زاد على مقدار معلوم منه فلعله g رأى هذا الرجل يتبختر بطول جمته...»

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Mullākhayl, Fatāwā ʿIbād al-Raḥmān, (Karachi: Educational Press Pakistan Chawk Karachi), 7:66, 106

Muḥammad Farīd, Fatāwā Farīdiyyah, ed. Anwar Shah, Aḥmad ʿAbbās, (Swabi, Dār al-ʿUlūm Ṣidīqiyyah, 2017), 9:79-81

Riḍāʾ al-Ḥaqq, Fatāwā Dār al-ʿUlūm Zakariyyā, 1st ed. (Karachi, Zamzam Publishers, 2017), 7:347, 350

Ẓafar Aḥmad Uthmani, Imdād al-Aḥkām (Karachi: Maktabah Dār al-ʿUlūm Karachi, 2017), 4:341