Q. As I
read in one of your other statements, you are well aware of the fact that
modern research shows no benefit for the circumcision of boys whilst it does
cause severe pain for them. Do Muslim parents still have to circumcise their children
or is there a valid excuse? If the boys should still be circumcised, how and
when is best?
A. The traditional
circumcision is not based on any issue of health or medical benefits, and as such,
while modern research may focus on this, it is of little benefit to the
religious authorities. Islam, like Judaism, traces its origins to Abrahamic
beliefs. In the Torah, one of the covenant articles (indeed among the first) is
that the male children of Abraham be circumcised. It is from this belief that
even the pre-Islamic Arabs circumcised their children. The Qur'an does NOT say
anything about abrogating the practice, and so Muslims have continued to do it,
in line with "shar'iat man qablanaa"
-- the law of those before us that has specifically NOT been abrogated by any Qur'anic edict.
There is also a difference of opinion
regarding adults who convert to Islam. There is no requirement for such a
ritual, although some point out that Abraham was given this order for himself
and his children while he was advanced in age, and that there is therefore no
age limit. However, this is rather rare. While I have NOT found this reason in
the Muslim texts, one of the philosophical ideas behind circumcision seems to
be that when a man looks at it, he will supposedly remember that the organ
should be only used for intercourse with those that the Shari'ah / Halakhah
allows. No survey, to the best of my knowledge, has been taken to see if this
philosophy has worked.
Webmaster's note: There is a myth in
some Muslim quarters that the Prophet Muhammad was born circumcised, an alleged miracle. We
searched the five popular hadith collections plus the Hadith Qudsi, and
found a total of eight references to circumcision. While the ahadith
talk about the procedure being recommended and presumably was practiced during the Prophet's time,
there was not a single reference that we could find of the alleged miracle, or of
circumcision actually being performed either on the Prophet or any of his companions.