THE HEALTH AND RELIGIOUS BENEfiTS of circumcision

he 0uslim obeys the command of Allaah. 7his is the meaning of Islam, which is submission to Allaah and obedience to is command, whether the wisdom behind it is clear to him or not, be cause the 2ne :ho is issuing the command Allaah, may e be e[alted is the Creator, the All .nowing, the All Aware, who cre ated mankind and knows what is good for them and what is not good for them. Cir cumcision is one of the rulings of sharee ah which the 0uslim carries out willingly, in submission to and out of love for Allaah, and seeking reward with im. e is certain that Allaah does not command anything unless there is a wisdom behind it and it is good for is slaves, whether people know that or not. Since your question referred to the health benefits of circumcision, we will, after looking at the shar i (religious) ben efits, will answer your question about the health benefits, in order to increase the be lievers in faith in the ruling, and so that non 0uslims may see one aspect of the great ness of this sharee ah (Islamic law) which came to bring benefits and ward off harm. 1 – The shar’i (religious) benefits: Circumcision is one of the commands con cerning beautification enjoined by Allaah, which Allaah has prescribed for is slaves to make them beautiful both outwardly and inwardly (physically and spiritually). It is the perfection of the fitrah (natural state of man) with which e created them, and hence it is the perfection of the haneefi yyah (pure monotheism) of the religion of Ibraaheem (Abraham). 7he origin of the institution of circumcision as the p e r fection of haneefiyyah was when Allaah made a cov e enant with Ibraaheem and promised to make him an imaam ( l e a d er) of m a n kind, and promised h im that he would be the father of many people, that prophets and kings would come from his loins and that his descendants would be many. And e told him that between him and his descendants there would be the sign of the covenant, which would be that every newborn male among them would be cir cumcised, and so the covenant would have this sign on their bodies. Circumcision is a sign of having entered into the religion of Ibraaheem, and this is in accordance with the interpretation of the verse (interpreta tion of the meaning) 2ur Sibghah (religion) is the Sibghah (religion) of Allaah (Islam) and which Sib ghah (religion) can be better than Allaah s And we are is worshippers al %aqarah : 8 as referring to circum c i s sion. ) )or the haneefs (pure monothe i ists, , i i.e., 0uslims), circumcision has c t the same status as bap baptism does for the w o r s h i p pers o of t h e cross c (i.e., (

Christians). 7hey purify their chil dren as they say when they bapti]e them in the baptismal water, and they say, now he has become a Christian. Allaah has prescribed for the haneefs their own rite, the symbol of which is circumcision. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): 2ur Sibghah (religion) is the Sibghah (religion) of Allaah (Islam) and which Sib ghah (religion) can be better than Allaah s And we are is worshippers al %aqarah : 8 So Allaah has made circumcision a symbol of those who belong to im and to is religion, and who attrib ute themselves to im as being utterly en slaved to im alone 7he point here is that the religion of Allaah is haneefiyyah (pure monotheism) which fills the heart with knowledge and love of im and sincerity towards im, and wor ship of im alone with no partner or asso ciate, and which marks the body with the characteristics of the fitrah, namely circum cision, removal of the pubic hair, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails, plucking the hair from the armpits, rinsing the mouth, rinsing the nose, using the siwaak (tooth brush made from twigs from a certain tree) and cleaning oneself after elimination of urine or faeces. So the fitrah of Allaah is manifested in the hearts of the haneefs and on their bodies. (7uhfat al 0awdood bi Ahkaam al 0aw lood by Ibn al 4ayyim, p. 5 ) Circumcision also has health benefits and brings a lot of benefits to the boy in his life. (See 4uestion 5). It is not essential for the child to remain as he is when he comes forth from his moth er s womb, if there is something that may be done for him that serves a purpose and is enjoined by the pure religion. Such things include shaving his head after he is born, because that is in his best interests. 7he 3rophet of Islam (peace and blessings of Al laah be upon him) said: 5emove the harm from him. 7he same applies to washing the blood from him and cutting the cord by which he was attached to his mother, and other things which are done to benefit him. 2 – The health benefits: r. 0uhammad Ali al %aar (a member of the 5oyal College of Surgeons in the U. and a consultant to the Islamic 0edicine department of the .ing )ahd Centre for 0edical 5esearch in the .ing Abdul A]i] University in -eddah) says in his book al .hitaan (Circumcision): Circumcision of newborn boys (i.e., with in the first month of life) brings numerous health benefits, including: 3rotection against local infection in the penis, which may result from the presence of the foreskin, causing tightening of the foreskin, which may lead to retention of urine or infections of the glans (tip) of the penis which require circumcision in order to treat these problems. In chronic cases, the child may be e[posed to numerous diseases in the future, the most serious of which is cancer of the penis. Infections of the urethra. 0any studies have proven that uncircumcised boys are more e[posed to infection of the urethra. In some studies the rate was 9 times more among uncircumcised boys. In other studies the rate was ten times more. 2ther studies showed that 95% of children who suffered from infections of the urethra were uncir cumcised, whereas the rate among circum cised children did not e[ceed 5%. In children, infection of the urethra is seri ous in some cases. In the study by :isewell on 88 children who suffered infections of the urethra, in % of them, the same bacteria was found in the blood also. 7hree of them contracted meningitis, and two suffered re nal failure. 7wo others died as a result of the spread of the micro organisms throughout the body. 3rotection against cancer of the penis: the studies agree that cancer of the penis is almost non e[istent among circumcised men, whereas the rate among uncircumcised men is not insignificant. In the US the rate of penile cancer among circumcised men is ]ero, whilst among uncircumcised men it is . in every , of the uncircumcised population. As most of the inhabitants of the US are circumcised, the cases of this cancer there are between 5 and per year. If the population were not circumcised, the number of cases would reach . In coun tries where boys are not circumcised, such as China, Uganda and 3uerto 5ico, penile cancer represents between % of all cancers found in men this is a very high percentage. Se[ually transmitted diseases (S7 s). 5esearchers found that the S7 s which are transmitted via se[ual contact (usually because of fornication adultery and homo se[uality) spread more among those who are not circumcised, especially herpes, soft chancres, syphilis, candida, gonorrhea and genital warts. 7here are numerous modern studies which confirm that circumcision reduces the pos sibility of contracting AI S when compared to their uncircumcised counterparts. %ut that does not rule out the possibility of a circum cised man contracting AI S as the result of se[ual contact with a person who has AI S. Circumcision is not a protection against it, and there is no real way of protecting one self against the many se[ually transmitted diseases apart from avoiding fornication adultery, promiscuity, homose[uality and other repugnant practices. ()rom this we can see the wisdom of Islamic sharee ah in forbidding fornication adultery and homose[uality). 5 3rotection of wives against cervical can cer. 5esearchers have noted that the wives of circumcised men have less risk of getting cervical cancer than the wives of uncircum cised men. )rom al .hitaan, p. , by r. 0uhammad al %aar. And Allaah knows best.