Is it Haram to Wear Nail Polish or Fake Nails in Islam?
There are a number of rules circulating in mainstream Islam that Muslim women must not wear nail polish or fake nails during their ablution, otherwise both her ablution and Salat would be invalid!
Their claim is that “one must remove anything that could prevent water from reaching the skin and nails, such as nail polish.”
Most Muslims generally agree that wearing nail polish is prohibited when praying, and thus refrain from using it altogether. They acknowledge nail polish as a product is not haram and that a woman can pray with nail polish; but when she performs her ablution, she has to remove it in order to validate her prayer.
So let’s analyse this topic in light of the Quran.
Firstly, let’s take a good look at God’s words in the Quran regarding ablution.
God provides us with 4 simple steps on how to perform ablution.
O you who believe, when you get up to observe the Salat, wash your faces and your arms to the elbows, and wipe your heads and your feet to the ankles. 5:6
The ablution prescribed by God in the Quran consists of four simple steps:
1- Wash the face
2- Wash the arms to the elbows
3- Wipe the head
4- Wipe the feet to the ankles
Specifically, these are the ablution steps we are to perform each time we “get up to observe the Salat" (5:6).
Notice that washing the hands are not even part of the ablution decreed by God in the Quran, let alone the fingernails!
Naturally we would use our hands to wash our face and arms. However there is definitely no mention of hands or fingernails in 5:6!
God also provides us with separate steps for a dry ablution for when we cannot find water.
If you are ill or travelling, or if any of you has come from the toilet or had sexual contact with women, and you could not find water, then wipe your faces and hands with clean dry soil. 4:43
Although this is only in certain circumstances and for cleanliness only, even wiping the hands with dry soil does not include the fingernails.
The problem is that the sects in mainstream Islam have combined the Quranic ablution with their own rituals they find in their hadiths.
In addition to the four steps prescribed in the Quran, they add:
1- Washing the hands to the wrists
2- Washing the mouth
3- Washing the nose (nostrils)
4- Washing the ears
5- Washing the neck
As a result, they observe an ablution that consists of 9 different steps! Not only that, the 9 steps are often repeated 3 times over!
Let’s remember, Prophet Muhammad followed nothing other than the Quran that was revealed to him:
Say, “I am not a novelty among the messengers, nor do I know what will happen to me or to you. I follow nothing other than what is revealed to me. I am no more than a clear warner.” 46:9
The ritual of ablution was always meant to be a quick and easy process, since what’s really important is being humble in our Salat and establishing a strong connection with our Creator.
Nail polish and fake nails are a big part of the beauty industry, one of the many adornments of this world where women can express themselves in their creativity and their uniqueness.
Say, “Who prohibited the zinat of God which He has produced for His servants and the good provisions?” Say, “They are, during the worldly life, for those who believe, and are exclusively theirs on the Day of Resurrection.” We thus detail the revelations for a people who know. 7:32
Say, “My Lord has only prohibited immoralities, what is apparent of them and what is concealed, and the sins, and unjustified aggression, and that you associate with God that for which He has not brought down any authorisation, and to say about God what you know not.” 7:33
Those who prohibit what God did not prohibit have invented their own religion, a totally different religion to the one decreed by God in the Quran.
Do not utter lies that are portrayed by your tongues: “This is lawful, and that is unlawful,” to fabricate lies and attribute them to God. Those who fabricate lies and attribute them to God will not succeed. 16:116
Is it other than God's religion that they seek, when all who are in the heavens and the earth have submitted to Him, willingly or unwillingly, and to Him they will be returned? 3:83
And do not follow what you have no knowledge of. Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart, all these will be questioned for it. 17:36
Peace & God Bless