The 365 · Sunnah · Day 294 · Cleanliness
Applying Ithmid (Antimony) Kohl to the Eyes
The hadith
قَالَ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ: «عَلَيْكُمْ بِالإِثْمِدِ، فَإِنَّهُ يَجْلُو البَصَرَ وَيُنْبِتُ الشَّعْرَ»
The Prophet ﷺ said: Use ithmid (antimony-based kohl); it polishes the sight and grows the eyelashes. (Tirmidhī, ḥasan)
Svenska: Profeten ﷺ sa: Använd ithmid (antimon-baserad kohl); det polerar synen och får ögonfransar att växa. (Tirmidhi, ḥasan)
Sunan Tirmidhī 1757, classified ḥasan. The Sunnah also appears in Ibn Mājah and other sources. The Prophet ﷺ applied ithmid himself, three times in each eye before sleep.
The story
The Prophet ﷺ kept a small container of kohl. He would apply it before sleep, three times in each eye. The Companions imitated him. The practice became a marker of the Sunnah-follower. Even today, the Sunnah of kohl carries this signature.
Why it's here
The Prophet ﷺ cared for his eyes specifically. The Sunnah of ithmid is twofold: cleansing the eye (the antimony has antibacterial and clarifying properties) and beautifying it. The Sunnah pairs hygiene with appearance. The believer's eye is a gift of Allah; the Sunnah honors it.
Try it today
1) Obtain genuine ithmid (the antimony-based kohl, not the cosmetic version). 2) Apply before sleep: three strokes per eye. 3) Add this to your night routine alongside wuḍūʾ and the pre-sleep adhkār.
In your day
Apply ithmid kohl before sleep, three times in each eye. The ithmid is a natural antimony preparation; many Muslim shops sell it. The application is part of the Prophet's ﷺ nightly routine of preparation: wuḍūʾ, ithmid, three Quls breath-and-wipe, the bedtime duʿāʾas.
A reflection to carry
There is a beautiful symbolic dimension. The eye is the gate of vision. The believer's vision sees the Qur'an's pages, the prayer mat, the family's faces, the world's signs of Allah. Honoring the eye is honoring the gate. The Sunnah of ithmid extends the believer's daily care to this organ of perception. We often neglect the eye except when it hurts; the Sunnah cared for it before any problem.
Read the longer reflection
There is a teaching the salaf transmitted. They said: the eye is the first organ to register the world; the heart is the second. The believer who maintains the eye's clarity (physically through ithmid, spiritually through avoiding the forbidden gaze) protects the gate to the heart. The Sunnah of ithmid is therefore part of the broader Sunnah of guarding the gaze. The polished eye that the kohl creates is matched by the polished heart that the disciplined gaze creates. Tonight, if you have ithmid, apply it. If you do not, obtain some. The Sunnah is small but signature. Yā Allāh, beautify our eyes with the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. Let our gates of perception be clear and pure. Āmīn.
Sources: Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Abu Dawud, Ahmad. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
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