Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuhu. Shaykh, I would like to know whether it is allowed for a female to put a red dot, or 'bindi’, also known as ‘tikka’ (the ornamental jewel worn on the forehead) on her forehead as a form of adornment. It is an adornment worn by females in the subcontinent, especially in India. Some say that this iis imitating Hindu goddesses and disbelievers. Is it okay to have these type of bindi or red dots as a cultural custom, or is it haram to do so? Please provide me with authentic evidence. Please do not refer to any of your similar or related fatwas. May Allah reward you.

All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallahu ʻalayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

There is no harm in that with the condition that wearing this adornment does not involve a religious prohibition such as a corrupt belief or imitation of the disbelievers in what is particular to them and that the Muslim woman does not display such adornment before non-Mahram (permanently unmarriageable) men. Allah, the Exalted, says (what means): {...and not (to) expose their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, their brothers' sons, their sisters' sons...} [Quran 24:31]

For more benefit, please refer to fatwa 348064.

Allah knows best.