Yasir Qadhi – Is Cosmetic Surgery Permissible to Correct a Birth Defect? – Ask Shaykh YQ #159

			Our next question, brother it fun emails location, not mentioned. And he says that he has a certain
		

			disfigurement that he was born with. He mentioned it to him, I don't need to mention it in public,
but he basically says that there is a condition that he was born with slight disfigurement of the
body, the physical body and this condition visible, it is a visible, you know, aberration, that it
can be corrected via surgery. And he is asking that, is it permissible to undergo he doesn't need it
for life and death his his he's able to live normally. But there is something about his appearance
that can be it draws attention and if he were to undertake this surgery, that it will change the
appearance and it will become
		

			better. And he is wondering that is this permissible? Because he has read in the Koran that shavon
has promised that he will delude mankind and he will change the creation of a lock for the urine,
Hulk Allah so this is why he's asking this question.
		

			One
		

			out of seven
		

			poverty, deca in Asia. No he him first coo
		

			coo?
		

			The response to this question is that there is no doubt that Allah subhanho wa Taala created mankind
as a default to be in perfect symmetry and perfect harmony. Allah says in the Quran that decreed it
as we isolate the queen in the best of all manners. And Allah says, So what are some facts and also
Oregon, he shaped and fashion do and he perfected that fashioning. And our Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam said, in a lotta Allah, Jimmy Lune, you have booja man, Allah azza wa jal 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, that it is something of beauty and of perfection. Some people are born with
		

			different medical conditions with different you know, called them birth defects, even aberrations
abnormalities. And this is a test for them and for those around them. And it is a means of raising
their ranks as well. You see, 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. And so we do not choose the time
of our birth and the family of our birth and our social upbringing, we do not choose the
circumstances of our birth, and what we have been gifted with of DNA and of wealth inherited is all
of us together. And whatever Allah gives us, it is our test and trial, we are all being tested, we
		

			are all being tested every one of us, but we're being tested in different ways. So I am being tested
and you are being tested. And it is possible that you know, in some ways, my tests are easier, and
in some ways, they're more difficult. And in other ways your tests are easier. And in other ways
your tests are more difficult. So of the things that Allah has tested is that some people are born
very handsome, or very beautiful. And that is a test from Allah, our Prophet, Yusuf Alayhi, salam,
he was tested by beauty, frankly, how many of us would have been able to pass that test? Right? So
he was tested with beauty, and other people are tested with other issues, and others are tested with
		

			defects, if you like or aberrations of this nature. And if that is the case, then if they're able
to, obviously if they're not able to change, for whatever reason, prematurity or if it's a condition
that cannot be changed, then we can only advise them to be patient and expect a loss reward and a
lot of xojo will reward them, but the question arises what if they can be changed, what if you're
able to correct these days science has progressed technology has progressed you know, surgeries are
now you know, amazing things can be done and much of what was considered to be impossible, even a
few decades ago is now standard and the norm. Simple example is the the cleft you know that some
		

			some children are born and they have an opening here in the cleft of their lips, and they cannot
smile and a simple surgery that literally cost dollars literally it costs dollars, that it can be
put together and it appear to be 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 and of them is that there is no you know, danger to the life for
what not that the person understands, you know, the risks and the risks are trivial compared to the
positives, that obviously qualified people do it. And that nothing How long has done to you know,
		

			during that procedure, so again, very generous
		

			Eric basic base essentially, it is permissible to undertake corrective procedures to overcome a
birth defect or even an acquired defect, for example, it is possible to protect all of us but
somebody might have a disease that will actually you know, something will happen and appendage will
come out or, you know, some type of you know, may Allah protect us a cancer or growth can we not
remove that we should we must it is the work or even if it's you know, non malignant a tumor that's
not going to hurt or harm us, but it looks abnormal, yes, Bismillah go ahead and remove it No
problem, or some people have an accident accident and scars or a burn happens, can they do skin
		

			grafting, can they do something that will, you know, make their appearances appear to be normal or
as normal as possible, all of this, pretty much all the council's that are active, and most of this
causes that I'm aware of, in fact, I do not have anybody who disagrees. But I mean, you know, the
reality is that there might be somebody but generally speaking, this is something that is across the
board, that corrective procedures are permissible. And the evidences for this are numerous of them
are the generic ahaadeeth. And versus in this regard. One of them is the principle of filth, there's
something called the provider the maxims of faith, and there are five a number and one of them is a
		

			bottle use that harm is to be eliminated, we get rid of harm, and this is a harm and it should be
eliminated, this is something that is harming you, it is making life awkward, nobody likes that, you
know, people are looking or it's abnormal marriage becomes problem, nobody likes this is something
that is not, you know, obviously conducive to one's mental health, and therefore, it is completely
permissible. In fact, it is also permissible to if need be, and this is something that case by case
basis that even if some amount of generally speaking, how long needs to be done to obtain a great
amount of help that actually it is permissible in some cases, unlike what some of our innocent
		

			Muslims think that you can never do any amount of harm. No, we look at what you're allowed to eat
pork if you're going to die, right. And again, I'm giving a drastic example. But the point being the
principle of lesser of two evils applies. And it is mentioned
		

			in the Hadith, in Abu Dhabi, and Muslim by Mohammed, by Alfred aside that his grandfather was a he
had a nose that had been chopped off in the words of the called the Wars of quelab and the days of
jelenia. So, he was in a battle in the days of Jamia and his entire nose had been chopped off. And
obviously you can imagine the disfigurement, you can imagine, you know, looking at that and you feel
nauseous, or you feel, you know, very, very bad to look at that. And so the, he was allowed to make
a nose straight out of silver, and to wear a fake nose made out of silver. But that one it spoiled,
it didn't you know, it didn't, you know, stick and it spoiled, it became rotten. And so the
		

			profitsystem allowed him to make a nose out of gold. This is a Hadith, in the Muslim Ahmed and other
books, the process of allowed him to make a nose out of gold. So he would have a fake nose. No, you
know, it's fake. But at least looking at it, he looks more normal than if there was nothing over
there. Now the point of this hadith is that as we are all aware, generally speaking, a man is not
allowed to wear gold. In fact, it is something that we know is not allowed. And yet in this case,
and by the way, this is not a life and death, he's not going to die, but it looks very very bad. And
people are gonna stare now having the gold people are still going to stare but the disgust will be
		

			much less he's going to be much more normal a prosthetic nose in place and using actual gold right
and so the process has allowed him to do this. So this clearly demonstrates that it is permissible
to undertake corrective surgery for aesthetic purposes aesthetic because again the nose was not a
life and death for him, but it's a matter of looking. So if you are looking abnormal for whatever
reason, something has happened to you or even a birth defect and there is a corrective procedure a
birth defect can be corrected any type of issue that can be brought back to normal then insha Allah
who tada by pretty much you know all of this call to the body's you know some but sometimes there's
		

			an extra finger sometimes this and that there's an appendage that is there a growth that is there
anything of this nature corrective surgery, you know, facial features are not normal, whatever, and
you can correct them. So this is something that can be done. No problem inshallah Tada, so your
question is easily answered. Now, the other part of this question that you did not ask, but it will
come. Because of this. I'm going to just quickly go over this. What if everything is normal, you are
a normal person, but you want to do a surgery or a procedure simply to beautify yourself, okay. So
you want to look better than you actually
		

			Or you're not satisfied with the shape of your nose, okay, you're not satisfied with you know the
size of a particular limb, okay, you're not, you know, you want to look this or that. In this case,
this is where we do find a much more
		

			scholarly difference of opinion, if you like 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 are, because something has happened to you or you're born a certain way,
we can cut a lot more slack. But if you're going to open the door to beautification, if you're going
to open the door to permanent procedures, simply because you're not satisfied with the shape of your
nose, as I said, Okay, you're not satisfied with your facial structure, you're not satisfied with,
you know, you know, ladies have certain things that they want to enhance or whatnot, and you want to
		

			do something just not because it's abnormal, not because it's something that is below average, and
people are going to, you know, not to appreciate you as a human being like if some people are born
as tested in their faces, disfigured or whatever, and surgeries can correct that and they can look,
you know, if not fully, but at least acceptable. That's no problem. But now, if you're going to open
this door, then really, that's, that's requires a longer discussion. And I don't want to go into a
lot of detail, because I just wanted you to be aware that there are in fact, many, many differences
of opinion. But generally speaking, generally speaking, the scholarly bodies the the the council's
		

			effect, are more on the prohibitive side when it comes to beautification. And they're more on the
closing this door of wanting to just change your features simply because you want to look more
handsome or more beautiful, and the International Islamic filter Academy in the year 2007. It issued
a fatwa dated, sorry, number 173 11 dash 18 you can look this up, it's a very detailed photo. So
lengthy photo, but the summary of it is that the this is of course, the International Academy, this
is one of the largest, you know academies in emerging markets of the world, one of the largest in
the world, they issued a detailed photo and they said that 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, okay, regardless of whether one was born that way, or
acquired a due to a disease or because of an accident. So to correct a defect, or to look normal
from something that is abnormal, however, they said, surgeries that are done for the sake of
beautification, so that one can look like you know, a model, somebody that's, you know, different
than than them, they said that this would not be allowed. And they explicitly mentioned face
enhancements, and, you know, breast procedures that women do and others they said, this would not be
		

			allowed, because you're opening up the door for evil for ISR, off for vanity, you're feeding your
ego, you know, you're becoming a bit narcissistic, about obsessed with your looks to the point of it
becoming unhealthy. And they also said this is where the threat of shaitaan would apply that I'm
going to change the creation of Allah because she had been threatened and shaytan said, as isn't a
Koran that you just watch, I'm going to make sure that they change the creation, I will offend you,
hey, you don't know Hulk Allah. So from this, to bring about a permanent change, we're not talking
about beautification of the clothes or beautification of you know, a permanent change that is done
		

			to look
		

			for him again, for lack of a better word, you know, above average, you are average, you're okay, but
now you want to start this all of this, by the way is relative, right? In one culture in one society
average is something above average or something else. And so if you open this door, you're really
gonna you know, go down a very, very dangerous route and a very vain and a very narcissistic route
that clearly the shediac would not want you to do. So bottom line to conclude in this in this of
this question to conclude, to perform a procedure to correct an aberration so that it looks normal
and by the way, this includes you know, teeth for example, right, if teeth are very crooked or
		

			whatnot, and you just get the you know, the the braces to look normal, you just get a normal smile,
for example, right? That's something that a shallow to other is permissible, but to start changing
your body and to start fine tuning, you know, your your your your face and your weather and
whatever, because you are not satisfied with what Allah subhanho wa Taala gave you. The general
ruling in those would be that they are not allowed for multiple
		

			reasons and of them is that there's an element of narcissism and of them that you're opening the
door for is rough and being vainglorious and a type of vanity and of them is that threat of shaitaan
will be a applicable to you and so with this inshallah tada we come to the conclusion of today's
lecture and inshallah, I will see you next Tuesday.