Question:
We all know that piercing the ears and nose should be avoided. Now she asks: what about those who already pierced their ears or nose earlier? Can they still wear jewelry in those piercings, or should they leave them empty?
Answer:
Let us first recall the principle that was explained earlier. The reason we discouraged ear and nose piercing is based on the idea that altering the natural form created by Allahﷻ should be avoided. The Qur’an mentions that Satan promised he would lead people to alter the creation of Allahﷻ .
Similarly, there are hadiths in which the Prophetﷺ criticized certain practices done purely for beauty, such as filing teeth to change their appearance. Those discussions were already explained earlier, and this question arises from that explanation.
Now the question is this: suppose someone already pierced their ears or nose in the past. What should they do now?
If they simply stop wearing jewellery in the pierced hole, over time the hole will close naturally. Allahﷻ created the skin in such a way that wounds heal. If a person cuts his skin with a blade, the skin eventually joins back together. There may be a scar, but the skin reconnects. In the same way, if someone stops using the piercing hole, the skin slowly closes and returns to its natural state.
Many women know this from experience. If they do not want the hole to close, they insert a small stick or thin object in the piercing just to keep the hole open. But if they leave it alone, eventually the skin closes.
Now suppose someone already pierced the ears long ago during a time of ignorance and continues wearing earrings. Should they now remove the jewellery and allow the hole to close? Or is it permissible to continue wearing jewellery in the existing piercing?
To answer this, we look at evidence from hadith. In Sahih Bukhari there is a narration describing what happened on the day of Eid. The Prophetﷺ delivered a sermon, and afterwards he approached the women and addressed them separately because they had not heard the earlier speech clearly. During that address he encouraged them to give charity. Bilal stood with a cloth collecting donations, and the women began removing their jewellery and placing it into the cloth as charity.
In most narrations, it mentions bracelets, rings, and necklaces. But in one narration—Bukhari Hadith 1431—it specifically mentions earrings. The women removed their earrings and placed them into the charity collection.
Now think about what this implies. Earrings cannot exist unless the ear has been pierced. The narration clearly states that women were wearing earrings. The Prophetﷺ saw this happening in front of him. Yet there is no report that he objected or said, “Why are your ears pierced?”
From this we understand something important. We may say piercing the ear or nose should be avoided because it alters the natural form. But if someone already had pierced ears and was wearing earrings, the Prophetﷺ did not forbid them in that situation. Therefore, the two matters must be understood separately.
One matter is creating the piercing. The other matter is wearing jewellery in a piercing that already exists.
These are not identical issues. The hadith shows that women who already had earrings were not commanded to remove them permanently. Another narration in Bukhari also describes the companion indicating jewelry from the ear when speaking about what the women donated, suggesting that earrings were indeed present.
So, the conclusion is this: if someone already pierced the ears or nose in the past and continues to wear jewelry there, we cannot declare that as a sin now. The Prophetﷺ saw women wearing earrings and did not condemn them. At the same time, this does not automatically become evidence that piercing the ears should be encouraged. Rather it indicates that existing piercings were tolerated.
