Recordings › Holistic Overview: Can Men Wear Earrings? -Mufti Abu Layth · 24 Jul 2019 › Segment 8 of 10
Is a man wearing an earring imitating women or harmful?
tafsir tafseer exegesis tafasir tafaseer malik ibn anas malik bin anas imam maalik imam malik ibn anas imaam imams prayer leader hanafite hanafiyyah hanafi school hambali hanbalite hanbali school muftis hukm ahkam hukum hukam ahkaam halal halaal lawful makruh makrooh makruh tahrimi makruh tanzihi sunna sunnat sunan prophetic practice hasan hadith hasan li-ghayrihi hasan li-dhatihi hasan sahih surah sura soorah surat suwar soora salaf as-salaf salaf al-salih salaf us-salih al-salaf as-salamu alaykum assalamu alaikum assalamualaikum salaam salaams salam alaykum wa alaykum as-salam peace greetingHanafi and Hanbali views, and replies to the objections of harm, imitating women and men's kohl
Play from 27:25
The video loads from YouTube only when you press play. Click a time in the transcript to seek.
Watch this part
Open on YouTube at 27:25The player starts at 27:25, the beginning of this part.
This segment27:25 to 31:22 · 3 min 57 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenNo: Qadi Khan of the Hanafis allowed boys' earrings since the jahiliyya practice went uncriticised by the Prophet, the harm argument cannot permit piercing for girls and forbid it for boys, and history shows men wearing earrings. Men wearing kohl shows that what is 'effeminate' is a cultural matter.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth says that a commentary on the aqiqah chapter [?] records that boys having their ears pierced was also a ruling among the Hanafis: Qadi Khan said the tifl, the young child, has its ears pierced, and although later Hanafis say this refers only to a girl, the word used is tifl. He adds that the Hanbalis said one should not pierce even a girl's ears because of the harm, but that the same source says there is no problem according to Qadi Khan with boys having an earring, since the people of the jahiliyya did this and the Prophet did not criticise or object to it, while some Hanafis again say that concerned girls. To those who oppose earrings on the grounds of harm, he says that if piercing is permitted for girls it is permitted for boys, since the ruling would be the same, and to those who say it imitates women he answers that thousands of years of history show men wearing earrings equally. He compares men wearing kohl or surma as eyeliner, common among religious men in the Indo-Pak world even though Imam Malik disliked it and said it was not sunnah but done for medicinal purposes, and remarks that eyeliner is far more effeminate today, so these are simply cultural matters.
- Some terms in this segment are uncertain
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the objections to men's earrings fail: if piercing is permitted for girls the harm argument cannot forbid it for boys, the imitation-of-women claim ignores thousands of years of men wearing earrings, and men wearing kohl shows that what counts as effeminate is a cultural matter.
“if you can do it for girls then you should be able to do for guys it makes no difference the ruling is the same”
Category: ruling
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine27:25 to 31:22 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
right through a so it's very clear the early generations did not see this as something to do with women or restricted to women in fact they generally always the young boys especially they would make them we and here what's interesting is a man son I mean subra Salam under bubble Atika he brings the narration he says that
that this was also a Hanafy according to the Hanna fear it was also a ruling now hmm but he also brings he I'm just
trying to see where he's that he says that called the Han from the Hanna fear said that the tiful the young boy has his earpiece but then later on the Hannah fear may disagree with Cody Han and say that that's oh that's only talking about a girl but the word used by Cody Han is is piffle okay
[Music] anyway oh but that's not because I know that Hanna fear won't accept it anyway but he does bring the alright so here is he brings he says that the Hanna the humble ease said that it was that you shouldn't even give curls in your ring
because it's harmful but he goes on to say well FIFA tower party Han mineral Hanafy Arab Sabbath up it wasn't it definitely unknown kind of feel jahiliya if you know because he says there's no problem according to call the harm from the Hannah fear for boys to have an e an earring because in Jogja Leah they used to do this well a myung-kil Elena be and the Prophet did not criticize it or object to it now I know some hanafis may say that all you know that was really about girls but but the point is there it is now if you look at those people who opposed earrings a lot of them said that the ruling for it was because it caused harm
but then the issue is if you have if if you can do it for girls then you should be able to do for guys it makes no difference the ruling is the same okay I hope that clarifies the other thing I would state is if people are saying the what makes it impermissible is imitates women it does not imitate women you have thousands of years of history of men equally wearing earrings and then I would say that look what about God
wearing eyeliner like soorma this many people claim many men religious men in the indo-pak world we eyeliner now you would think Imam Ali didn't like it because he said it's not Sunnah this was just something done for medicinal purposes yet these people feel there's no problem in men wearing eyeliner which is definitely effeminate today so you see these things are simply cultural matters another issue somebody may state is that you said Imam Hasan and Husayn wore
Paragraphs overlapping 27:25 to 31:22. Full text on the recording page.
Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2019-07-24b-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/pkjtq8axgre/s/8/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2019, July 24). Is a man wearing an earring imitating women or harmful? [Video, segment 2019-07-24b-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/pkjtq8axgre/s/8/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2019. "Is a man wearing an earring imitating women or harmful?" Video, segment 2019-07-24b-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded July 24, 2019. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/pkjtq8axgre/s/8/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2019-07-24b-S08, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Is a man wearing an earring imitating women or harmful?}}, year = {2019}, month = {7}, date = {2019-07-24}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/pkjtq8axgre/s/8/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/pkjtq8axgre/s/8/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2019-07-24b-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
Something wrong here?
Tell us what is wrong and it will be checked against the recording. Nothing changes until a person has reviewed it.
Sending a note needs JavaScript, which is off or unavailable in this browser. Nothing has been sent.
No name, email address or account is asked for or stored, and the inbox does not store your IP address. For rate limiting it keeps an unreadable fingerprint of your connection for 48 hours, and our database provider's own logs record connections as every website's do. Only your note, its kind, the page and the moment in the recording are kept, for review.