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Is Surgery Permissible for Abnormal-Sized Nose?

08 October, 2018
Q I am desperately looking for help in the subject below and hope that you will take time to answer my question, enlighten me, and dissipate my doubts. I have an abnormal-sized nose including very big turbinates and a deviated septum causing me extreme difficulties for breathing. Several times, I woke up during the night grasping for air due to a blocked nose and consequent sleep apnea. In fact, my wife spends most of the time watching me, scared that something could happen to me while asleep. My doctor recommended a septorhinoplasty, which of course would lead also to an enhancement of the external appearance of my nose. I would like to do the surgery to get relief, but as a Muslim who fears Allah and although this is not for cosmetic reasons I am scared to death to take such a step forward. I also feel strike guilty about it. I must also point out that bringing the size of my nose to a normal one will relief me from melancholy and extreme distress! Please help! What is to be done? Can I go ahead with the surgery to get relief without feeling being guilty about it?

Answer

Dr. Hatem Al-Haj
08 October, 2018

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. 

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

In this fatwa:

A Muslim is not allowed to change Allah’s creation. However, if one has any abnormal or anomalous part of a body, he is allowed to have a surgery to adjust that part as long as an honest physician has stated that.

Responding to your question, Dr. Hatem Al-Hajj, Dean of the College of Islamic Studies at Mishkah University and a member of the Permanent Fatwa Committee for the Assembly of Muslim Jurists in America (AMJA), states:

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Changing the creation of Allah is forbidden. It was narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “May Allah curse the one who does tattoos and the one who has a tattoo done, the one who plucks eyebrows and the one who has her eyebrows plucked, and those who file teeth for the purpose of beautification, changing the creation of Allah.” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)

We should be satisfied with how Allah fashioned us. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saw a man dragging his garment because he was ashamed of his deformed legs, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Raise your garment for all of the creation of Allah is beautiful.” (Al-Bayhaqi)

Lastly, if the difference lies outside of the normal spectrum of human diversity, then it would be considered a disease, and may be treated surgically. The physician decides what is considered anomalous.

Plastic surgery is thus allowed as a treatment to correct an actual abnormality, whether that abnormality is congenital or acquired.

If your nose is anomalous, then you should not hesitate to have it treated. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Seek proper cure [for your diseases] O, servants of Allah.” (Ibn Majah and Abu Dawud)

Almighty Allah knows best.

Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.