Mohammad Rafoqie
Junior Member
By Muhammad rafique Etesame
It is a burning question among the people whether the ablution and bath (Ghusl-e-Janabat) of woman who uses nail polish are accurate in the light of Shariah or not? Ulama’s unanimous verdict in this issue is that t hey are both erroneous until it removed. Fashionable class totally reject this verdict and consider it a “fatwa of so-called Islamic Scholars.” In this regard some questions are raised as:-
(1) If a woman uses nail polish after making ablution, the ablution of her nails becomes safe under the nail polish. In case renewal of her ablution, if she does not wash her nails again whether her ablution is complete or not?
(2)Men who use hair-dye or women use “Hina” (A shrub which leaves are used for dying of hands or hair )whether their ablution and bath are also accurate or not? Because it makes also a mask on the hair like nail polish etc.
It is then necessary to explain this issue in the light of the Holy Qur’an and Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) so that misunderstandings about it might be removed.
Fundamental cause of inaccuracy of ablution and bath after using nail polish is that it makes such a surface on the nails that water cannot be pass through it and they remain dry.
So the part which is obliged to wash in’voozo and ghusal’ left dry. There are four obligations in the ablution proved by the Quran. Almighty Allah Says, “O ye who believe! When you rise up for prayer, wash your faces, and your hands up to the elbows, and lightly rub your heads and (wash) your feet up the ankles.(Almaedah:660) So in case using nail polish, the second obligation i.e.to wash hands up to the elbows cannot be performed utterly due to covering of the nails by nail polish. Same situation is in ‘ghusl-e-janabat’(Obligatory bath)
Because it is necessary to wash the whole body that even a single hair should not be left dry otherwise ‘bath’ will be inaccurate because of using nail polish. As regards the safety of ablution under the nail polish after ablution, so it is quite base less because when the ablution breaks, it breaks completely not partly. Reason is that the ‘nijasat’ (filthy) is of two categories as mention in the authentic books of Islamic jurisprudence as ’hukmi and ‘Haqiq’(factual and infallible). (Hidaya, Kabiri, Shami) Nijasat-e-Haqiqi’ is visible like urine, excrement etc, and ‘Nijasat-i-Hukmi’ is invisible but is considered as unclean. For example, In ‘ghusle jnabat’ “nijasat attaches on a specific part of the body but it is necessary to wash the whole body because the specific part of it unclean yet under the ‘nijasat-e-Hukmi! Same situation is in ablution. Although nails are quite clean under the nails polish but are unclean under the above mentioned ‘nijasat,(Filthy) so washable.
As regards the hair-dye and ’Hina’ they are quite different from the nail polish. Because it does not make any permanent surface on the nails that can be scrapped by knife etc., so it does not make any fault in ablution and bath.
The Holy Prophet (PBUH) also used ‘khizab ‘(hair-dye) as mentioned in the ahadith. It is narrated by hazrat Abu hurarah (God be pleased with him) that the Holy prophet (PBUH) used ’khizab’. (Shamile Tirmazi) Hazrat Anas also reported that he had seen the hair-dye of Rasul-Allah (PBUH) . So the question is: whether the ablution and bath of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) by using hair-dye were accurate or not? (Surely they were accurate.)
Another aspect of this issue is that the nail polish is used according to the color-matching of dress. When dress is changed, the nail polish is also changed by removing lotion. When it is removed for color-matching, then why it should not be removed for cleanliness and purity?