How to decide if a cosmetic surgery is permissible

5-3-2009 | IslamWeb

Question:

Hi i just had a question regarding cosmetic surgery and if it is allowed in Islam. I was reading some of the other replies given based on it and i am still unclear.
I want to get a nose job, because my nose is unusually large. In my opinion i definitely consider it a defect. Based on the definitions given it is not clear what is a defect and not. The definition i read stated that it is permissible if it is an abnormality. But how does one one define an abnormality?
Once again i would not be having this nose job for beauty reasons. But at the same time i don't have a clear defect in terms of actual problems breathing or anything like that. I have gotten made fun of my whole life for the size of the nose.
Also based on the quotes from the Quran it is constantly reffering to women having these procedures. I am a male and wish to have this fixed. Is there a difference for men and women?

Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

 

The matter is as you read in those Fataawa about the ruling of undergoing cosmetic surgery. One’s feeling that his nose is big is not by itself sufficient for the defect to be an abnormality, because this may include a psychological state of mind in a way that a person may consider this as a very serious matter but in reality it is not.

Therefore, in such a case, it is the customs that should determine whether or not this defect is an abnormality and is unusual for the general public.

On the other hand, the fact that some religious texts of changing Allaah’s Creation are about women, this does not mean that it is peculiar to women; in addition to this, some texts are general as Allaah Says when speaking about the devil (what means): {And I will mislead them, and I will arouse in them [sinful] desires, and I will command them so they will slit the ears of cattle, and I will command them so they will change the creation of Allaah.”} [Quran 4:119]

Allaah Knows best.

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