Full Lecture Transcript (Cleaned)
The Question — 0:00
Our next question: Brother Irfan emails — location not mentioned — and he says that he has a certain disfigurement that he was born with. He mentions it, but I don't need to mention it in public. He basically says that there is a condition he was born with — a slight disfigurement of the physical body. This condition is visible; it is a visible aberration that can be corrected via surgery. He is asking: is it permissible to undergo this surgery? He doesn't need it for life and death — he's able to live normally — but there is something about his appearance that draws attention, and if he were to undertake this surgery, it will change the appearance and it will become better. He is wondering whether this is permissible, because he has read in the Quran that Shaytan has promised that he will delude mankind and he will change the creation of Allah.
Allah Created Mankind in the Best Form — 1:07
In response to this question: there is no doubt that Allah created mankind, as a default, to be in perfect symmetry and perfect harmony. Allah says in the Quran that He created us in the best of all manners, and Allah says He shaped and fashioned you and He perfected that fashioning. Our Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said, "Indeed Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty."
So there is no doubt that the default of how man has been created — the ideal man, the ideal woman — is something of beauty and of perfection. Some people are born with different medical conditions, with different birth defects, aberrations, or abnormalities. This is a test for them and for those around them, and it is a means of raising their ranks as well.
Tests and Trials from Allah — 2:06
Anybody who has been tested with anything has the potential to gain much more than anybody else who has not been tested in that manner. We do not choose the time of our birth, the family of our birth, or our social upbringing. We do not choose the circumstances of our birth and what we have been gifted with of DNA and of wealth. Inheritance is all from Allah, and whatever Allah gives us is our test and trial. We are all being tested — every one of us — but we are being tested in different ways.
Of the things Allah has tested people with: some are born very handsome or very beautiful, and that is a test from Allah. Our Prophet Yusuf (alayhi al-salam) was tested by beauty — frankly, how many of us would have been able to pass that test? Other people are tested with other issues, and others are tested with defects or aberrations of this nature.
Corrective Surgery Is Permissible — 3:28
If they're not able to change their condition — for whatever reason, whether pre-modernity or if it's a condition that cannot be changed — then we can only advise them to be patient and expect Allah's reward. But the question arises: what if they can be changed? These days science has progressed, technology has progressed, and surgeries can do amazing things. Much of what was considered impossible even a few decades ago is now standard.
A simple example is the cleft lip — some children are born with an opening in their lip and they cannot smile. A simple surgery that literally costs dollars can correct it to appear normal.
With respect to such operations and surgeries, there is pretty much no difference of opinion that it is permissible to undertake such corrective procedures, with some very simple conditions:
- There is no danger to the life of the person
- The person understands the risks, and the risks are trivial compared to the positives
- Qualified people perform the procedure
- Nothing haram is done during that procedure
The Scope of Permissible Corrections — 4:48
Essentially, it is permissible to undertake corrective procedures to overcome a birth defect or even an acquired defect. For example — and may Allah protect all of us — somebody might have a disease where something will grow abnormally, or a cancer or growth. Can we not remove that? We should, we must — it is treatment. Even if it's non-malignant, a tumor that's not going to hurt or harm us but looks abnormal — yes, bismillah, go ahead and remove it, no problem.
Or some people have an accident and scars or burns happen — can they do skin grafting? Can they do something that will make their appearance appear to be normal, or as normal as possible? All of this, pretty much all the councils that are active and most of the scholars that I'm aware of agree: corrective procedures are permissible.
The Evidence: The Maxim of Eliminating Harm — 5:42
The evidences for this are numerous. Among them are the generic hadith and verses in this regard. Among them is the principle from the maxims of fiqh — there are five in number — and one of them is: "Harm is to be eliminated" (al-darar yuzal). This is a harm and it should be eliminated. It is making life awkward; nobody likes people staring or it being abnormal. Marriage becomes a problem. It is not conducive to one's mental health, and therefore it is completely permissible.
In fact, it is also permissible, on a case-by-case basis, that even if some amount of what is generally haram needs to be done to obtain a great amount of halal, it is actually permissible. Unlike what some innocent Muslims think — that you can never do any amount of haram — we are allowed to eat pork if we're going to die. The principle of the lesser of two evils applies.
The Hadith of the Gold Prosthetic Nose — 6:52
It is mentioned in the hadith in Abu Dawud that Arfajah ibn As'ad — his grandfather was in a battle during the pre-Islamic wars of Kulab, and his entire nose had been chopped off. You can imagine the disfigurement — looking at it would make a person feel nauseous. He was allowed to make a prosthetic nose out of silver, but it spoiled and became rotten. So the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) allowed him to make a nose out of gold.
This is a hadith in Musnad Ahmad and other books. He would have a fake nose — you know it's fake, but at least looking at it he looks more normal than if there was nothing there. The point of this hadith is that, as we are all aware, generally speaking a man is not allowed to wear gold — and yet in this case, and by the way, this is not a life-and-death situation — he's not going to die, but it looks very bad and people are going to stare. Having the gold prosthetic still draws attention, but the disgust will be much less. He's going to be much more normal with a prosthetic nose in place.
So the Prophet allowed him to do this. This clearly demonstrates that it is permissible to undertake corrective surgery for aesthetic purposes — because the nose was not a life-and-death matter for him, but a matter of looking normal.
The Ruling on Corrective Surgery — 8:33
If you are looking abnormal for whatever reason — something has happened to you or a birth defect — and there is a corrective procedure, then insha'Allah, by pretty much all of the scholarly bodies, this is permissible. Sometimes there's an extra finger, sometimes an appendage or a growth, sometimes facial features are not normal — whatever it is, if you can correct them, this is something that can be done, no problem, insha'Allah.
Cosmetic Surgery for Beautification — 9:10
Now the other part of this question that you did not ask, but it will come up: what if everything is normal? You are a normal person, but you want to do a surgery or a procedure simply to beautify yourself. You want to look better than you actually are. You're not satisfied with the shape of your nose, you're not satisfied with the size of a particular limb, you want to look this or that.
In this case, this is where we find a much greater scholarly difference of opinion. Corrective surgery — remediation, anything that you're making up, covering up a fault — pretty much no problem, go ahead and get it done to look normal, average, like most people, because something has happened to you or you're born a certain way. We can cut a lot more slack there.
But if you're going to open the door to beautification — permanent procedures simply because you are not satisfied with the shape of your nose, your facial structure, or other features — not because it's abnormal, not because it's something below average that people are going to look down on — that's a different matter entirely and requires a longer discussion.
The Scholarly Position on Beautification Surgery — 10:24
Generally speaking, the scholarly bodies and the councils of fiqh are more on the prohibitive side when it comes to beautification. They are more on closing this door of wanting to change your features simply because you want to look more handsome or more beautiful.
The International Islamic Fiqh Academy in the year 2007 issued Fatwa Number 173 (11-18) — you can look this up; it's a very detailed and lengthy fatwa. The summary of it is that this academy — one of the largest scholarly bodies in the world — said:
It is permissible to perform any surgery that is safe and whose effects will be minimally harmful, if it is done to correct a defect or to better a look that is considered abnormal — regardless of whether one was born that way or acquired it due to a disease or because of an accident.
However, they said: surgeries that are done for the sake of beautification — so that one can look like a model or different than what they are — would not be allowed. They explicitly mentioned face enhancements and breast procedures, saying this would not be allowed because:
- You're opening the door for evil and vanity
- You're feeding your ego
- You're becoming narcissistic and obsessed with your looks to the point of it becoming unhealthy
The Threat of Shaytan — 12:10
They also said this is where the threat of Shaytan would apply — that "I'm going to change the creation of Allah" — because Shaytan threatened and said, as is in the Quran: "You just watch, I'm going to make sure that they change the creation of Allah." To bring about a permanent change — not beautification of clothes or temporary measures, but a permanent change done simply to look above average — this is where the prohibition applies.
All of this is relative: in one culture, in one society, average is something, and above average is something else. If you open this door, you're really going to go down a very dangerous, very vain, and very narcissistic route that clearly the Sharia would not want you to pursue.
Conclusion — 13:15
Bottom line to conclude:
- To perform a procedure to correct an aberration so that it looks normal: this is permissible. This includes things like braces for very crooked teeth — getting a normal smile is permissible.
- To start changing your body and fine-tuning your face because you are not satisfied with what Allah gave you: the general ruling is that it is not allowed, for multiple reasons:
- There's an element of narcissism
- It opens the door for vanity and being vainglorious
- The threat of Shaytan about changing the creation of Allah becomes applicable