Muslimah Inspired to Leave Her Eyelash Extension Business Behind After A Personal Reminder

The beauty business is a big business, with many different ways to cash in on the latest trends. Muslim women, just as any other women, love to amplify their natural beauty with products from skincare, haircare, and so on. However, Muslims always need to be aware of the halal and haram of any conduct, and choosing beauty products falls into the need to know what is halal and what is not.

With certified Halal personal skincare products now available, it is no longer a worry for a beauty product consumer to be doubtful about whether the skincare products they use are halal or not. However, not all beauty products have the Halal stamp of approval.

Don’t think that the rulings of halal and haram in beauty products mean that Islam doesn’t want Muslims to beautify themselves. It is the contrary. In a hadith, Rasulallah s.a.w. said that “Allah is Beautiful, He loves beauty“. It’s just that we need to know the details of what is allowed and what is forbidden in our quest to beautify ourselves.

Eyelash Extension Haram or Halal

Take the fake beauty industry: the beauty extension products, such as hair extensions, eye lash extensions, and fake nails. Just ask any Islamic scholar. Most of them will say that they are not halal. But as Muslims, as humans, we all have different levels of faith, of iman, and of knowledge. Not all will follow the halal and haram rules in detail. Some will continue on with what they love despite the halal/haram aspect of it. We are not here to condemn those that do, but praise and find inspiration in those who leave behind what they love for the love of Allah s.w.t.

A Personal Experience of a Beautician

A Malaysian Muslimah, who goes by her public name as Nayra Fikaa shared her story on TikTok where she shared her journey of an eyelash extension beautician. She loves the beauty industry and took a course to become an eyelash beautician despite knowing that using fake eyelashes falls under the haram in Islam. She invested over RM2,000 to start her business.

One day, she received a call from her husband who informed her that his aunt has passed away. He asked his wife to help with the preparation for the washing of the jenazah (the dead body), specifically to remove his aunt’s false eyelashes. The beautician refused her husband’s request many times. However, she conceded at last, and accepted to help remove the false eyelashes from the deceased.

She elaborated on her experience, “Only Allah knew my feelings then. My eyes were staring into her eyes. But I was staring into the eyes of a dead person. My hands were trembling.”

“Since that day on, I stopped my eyelash extension service. Allah s.w.t sent me a reminder. Since that day, I closed my eyelashes business and sold the equipment to someone else.”

A Backlash Ensued

However, not all is well. After Nayraa’s TikTok post went viral, and her story was picked up by various local sites, she received many hateful comments. Mostly from other beauticians who offer the eyelash extension service, and who are also Muslimahs. They complained that her post is causing her to shut down their livelihood.

This is probably because the post creates awareness among Malaysian Muslimahs of the halal and haram aspect of eyelash extensions, that most might not be aware of. The greater awareness would lead to lower demand for this service..

Nayraa has since posted an apology on her account, saying her post earlier was not meant to close down anyone else’s livelihood. She was merely sharing her personal experience.

To us at Halalop, we are thankful and inspired by her story and her decision to leave the eyelash extension business behind. Prioritizing the halal over haram is important, and sometimes needs courage. Staying steadfast in continuing to pursue the halal also needs courage.

Nayraa, we support you with your halal decision. Stay strong!

Farah I, Writer & Researcher

Farah Ishak is a Content Writer at Halalop. She grew up in the United Kingdom where she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Management. Later, she completed her MBA and held senior-level positions in Malaysian based MNC. She left the corporate world to be with her young kids. She is passionate about issues concerning Muslim women, Startups and Muslim businesses in general.