The changing attitude of Islam toward cosmetic procedures and plastic surgery

Ben-Ari, Shosh (2013) The changing attitude of Islam toward cosmetic procedures and plastic surgery. Acta Orientalia, 66 (2). pp. 147-161. ISSN 0001-6446

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Abstract

Since the days of the Djāhiliyya, when the most beautiful of girls was referred to as a ghāniya — she who needs nothing to add to her natural beauty — procedures to change the appearance such as hair dying, depilation and so forth have been discussed in Muslim law books. We find in the ḥadīth corpus traditions for and against colouring the hair; accounts of Abraham and Muhammad doing (or opposing) it; removal of hair from the armpits by Abraham; and so on. Alongside modernisation and the expanding cosmetics industry, the Islamic world has recently been facing the dilemma of changing what is defined in the Ḳurān as ‘Allah‘s creation ‘(“And surely I will command them and they will change Allah‘s creation. Who so chooseth Satan for a patron instead of Allah is verily a loser and his loss is manifest”: Ṣūrat al—Nisā‘, (4), 119). Globalisation has contributed to a heightened awareness of appearance and exposure to cosmetic surgery, through TV, the Internet, beauty celebrities, and Hollywood movies. When asked about this, the eminent Muslim scholar Shaikh Yūsuf al-Ḳara-dāwī stated against what he defined as “Surgeries for beautification”, but we find also other opinions which approve plastic surgery if it is used to treat a deformed organ where the operation will offer a better quality of life. Plastic surgery has advanced at a rapid rate in an attempt to reduce people‘s suffering. Islam welcomes plastic surgeries as long as it is practised for people‘s benefit, for a sound reason and not for luxury purposes. In this paper I would like to survey the changing attitudes to these issues from the beginning of Islam to the present day.

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