Cutting Nails And Hair

1] Does Islam allow you to grow your nails?

2] Does Islam allow you to cut your hair?

3] Are you allowed to play the lottery and then give your winnings to charity?

1.Cutting nails is the Sunnah of the Prophet (sws), which he introduced and disseminated among the Muslims as the part of the religion. This entails that growing nails without any reasonable excuse would be tantamount to abandoning a religious practice, which we must adhere to in normal circumstances. The basic wisdom behind this practice is to ensure hygiene and also to avoid resemblance with savage animals. Dirt often accumulates in elongated nails.

2.In his response to a similar query Mr. Shehzad Saleem writes:

“Women are allowed to cut their hair in any decent style they want. The only haircut forbidden is that which makes them resemble men. The reason for this is that Allah has made men and women as two distinct entities upon which is built the whole edifice of a society; each has distinct functions and distinct responsibilities; copying each other in spheres specifically meant for the one is against the fitrah (human nature) made by Allah and breeds wrong attitudes, desires and inclinations.

Baby-cut hair, I believe, makes women resemble men and hence it is undesirable.”

3.Islam exhorts its adherents upon spending in charity. The Almighty says:

O you who believe! Spend of the pure things which you have earned, and of that which we bring forth from the earth for you, and seek not the bad (with intent) to spend thereof (in charity) when you would not take it for yourselves save with disdain; and know that Allah is Absolute, Owner of Praise. [2:267]

The aforementioned verse urges the Muslims to spend in the way of Allah. It also guides them to spend only those things, which they earn not which they get by the game of chance. It enjoins upon them to spend only pure things which implies that what is being spent should be earned lawfully and in case of goods it should not be seconds.

Lotteries etc. we know is not a proper way of earning. It’s a kind of gambling and Islam prohibits all kinds of games of chance. Shari`ah has prohibited all kinds of financial transactions in which anyone or more of the parties involved in the transaction gains any amount of money, which it does not morally deserve to gain.

However, there exists another kind of lottery used product promotion. Here you buy a product and sometimes get entitled to win a certain amount or other items of use. This kind of lottery though objectionable morally (as it aims at passing something out in a pleasant package, which might be difficult to sell otherwise,) cannot be objected to on the legal grounds.

In the light of above explanation the answer to your question would be in negative. However, for someone who may have won money through lottery and now they do not want to spend it on themselves, the best way to dispose it would be to give it in charity.