Question: What is the Shariah ruling on a man piercing his ears and wearing earrings or the like?
Answer: For a boy or a man, piercing the ears and putting earrings or the like in them is not permissible in Shariah, because it is an imitation of women, which is haram.
◈ Hafiz Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) writes:
“In piercing a child’s ear there is neither any worldly benefit nor any religious benefit. It is only the cutting of one of his body parts, which is not permissible.”
◈ Ibn al-Khas writes:
و ذلك بدعة يجب ا نكارها والمنع منها
“Piercing a child’s ear is an innovation; denouncing it and prohibiting it is obligatory.”
Benefit:
It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), in which seven things regarding a child are called sunnah, and one of them is piercing its ear.
Commentary:
The chain of this narration is da’if, because:
Its narrator Rawad bin Jarrah, although according to the majority he is “hasan al-hadith,” became afflicted with ikhtilat (confusion of memory) in his final years, and on this basis he was declared “matruk” (abandoned).
As regards this, Hafiz Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) writes:
صدوق اختلظ بأخرة، فترك، و فى حديثه عن الثوري ضعف شديد .
“He is a saduq narrator, but in his final years he became afflicted with ikhtilat; there is severe weakness in his narrations from Sufyan al-Thawri (may Allah have mercy on him).”
Regarding al-Qasim bin Musawir al-Jawhari, no one has mentioned about either of the two that they heard from Rawad before his ikhtilat, therefore the chain is “da’if.”
◈ Abu al-Hasan Ali bin Ishaq bin Rahawayh (may Allah have mercy on him) says that his father Ishaq bin Rahawayh (may Allah have mercy on him) had pierced ears from birth, so his grandfather Rahawayh went to al-Fadl bin Musa al-Sinani and asked him about this. He said: your son will be either extremely good or extremely bad.
◈ Hafiz al-Dhahabi (may Allah have mercy on him) writes:
هذا اسناد جيد و حكاية عجيبه . . . .
“Its chain is hasan and this report is strange.”
◈ Hafiz Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) writes:
“It seems that Imam al-Fadl bin Musa thought that just as this child is unique among others in this trait, so too he will be unique among others in religion or in worldly matters.”
◈ Regarding Imam Ishaq bin Rahawayh al-Marwazi (may Allah have mercy on him) (161/238 AH), Imam al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (may Allah have mercy on him) writes:
كان أحد أئمة المسلمين و علما من اعلام الد ين، اجتمع له الحديث، والفقه، والحفظ، والصدق، و لورع، والزهد . . . . . . . . . .
“He is one of the imams of the Muslims. Knowledge of hadith, fiqh, memorization, truthfulness, scrupulousness, and asceticism all gathered in him…”
He (may Allah have mercy on him) thoroughly refuted the Jahmiyya and other people of innovation in the lands of Khurasan, and played a full role in the supremacy of the Sunnah and the spread of correct Islamic beliefs.
Benefit:
For a girl or a woman, piercing the ears is permissible and correct, because a woman needs ornaments for adornment. In support of this answer is the hadith of Umm Zar’ from Sayyida Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), in which the eleventh woman said about her husband:
أناس من حلي أذني .
“He hung ornaments on my ears.”
It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, after the Eid prayer, encouraged the women to give charity, and:
فجعلت المرأة تلقي قرطها .
“The women began removing their earrings.”
Muhammad bin Mahmud al-Sarushani (al-Hanafi, d. 632 AH) writes:
ولا بأس بثقف أذن الطفل من البنات، لأنهم يفعلون ذلك زمن النبى صلى الله عليه وسلم من غير انكار . . . . . . .
“There is no harm in piercing the ears of girls, because people used to do so in the time of the Prophet ﷺ without any denunciation.”
In summary:
For a man, piercing the ears and putting earrings or the like in them is absolutely not permissible; rather, it is haram due to resemblance to women. It is regrettable that Muslim youth, in imitation of disbelievers, have become determined to oppose the pure Shariah.
