Is Bleaching Prohibited in Islam?

Question: 2895

What is the ruling on bleaching one's skin, is it prohibited or alright?

Summary of answer

There is nothing wrong with bleaching if it is done to remove a fault or blemish. But if bleaching is done for beauty and perfection, it is not permitted because it involves changing the creation of Allah.

Answer

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family.

Bleaching the skin is done for one of two reasons:

It is done in the pursuit of beauty and perfection. This is not permitted because it involves changing the creation of Allah , and because it is regarded as being in the same class as tattooing , practitioners of which were cursed by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
It is done to remove a fault or blemish, such as a black spot or something similar on the hand or elsewhere, which a person bleaches in an attempt to remove the blemish. There is nothing wrong with this, because it is counted as removing faults .

For more details, please see the following category: Adornments

And Allah knows best.

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Source:

Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid