صحیح مسلم · Hadith 5573

Abdullah reported that Allah had cursed those women who tattooed and who have themselves tattooed, those who pluck hair from their faces and those who make spaces between their teeth for beautification changing what God has created. This news reached a woman of the tribe of Asad who was called Umm Ya'qub and she used to recite the Holy Qur'an. She came to him and said: What is this news that has reached me from you that you curse those women who tattooed and those women who have themselves tattooed, the women who pluck hair from their faces and who make spaces between their teeth for beautification changing what God has created? Thereupon 'Abdullah said: Should I not curse one upon whom Allah's Messenger ( ‌صلی ‌اللہ ‌علیہ ‌وسلم ‌ ) has invoked curse and that is in the Book also. Thereupon that woman said: I read the Qur'an from cover to cover, but I did not find that in it. whereupon he said: If you had read (thoroughly) you would have definitely found this in that (as) Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, has said: What Allah's Messenger brings for you accept that and what he has forbidden you, refrain from that. That woman said: I find this thing in your wife even now. Thereupon he said: Go and see her. She reported: I went to the wife of 'Abdullah but found nothing of this sort in her. She came back to him and said: I have not seen anything. whereupon he said: Had there been anything like it in her, I would have never slept with her in the bed.

Translated by Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan · Reviewed by Islamic University of Madinah · Published March 2020