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

Yasir Qadhi

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Channel: Yasir Qadhi

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

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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

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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.

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One

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out of seven

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poverty, deca in Asia. No he him first coo

00:01:24--> 00:01:26

coo?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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,

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during that procedure, so again, very generous

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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to look

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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

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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

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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.