The health and religious benefits of circumcision

Question

Praise be to Allah.

The Muslim obeys the command
of Allaah. This is the meaning of Islam, which is submission to Allaah
and obedience to His command, whether the wisdom behind it is clear
to him or not, because the One Who is issuing the command – Allaah,
may He be exalted – is the Creator, the All-Knowing, the All-Aware,
who created mankind and knows what is good for them and what is not
good for them. Circumcision is one of the rulings of sharee’ah which
the Muslim carries out willingly, in submission to and out of love for
Allaah, and seeking reward with Him. He is certain that Allaah does
not command anything unless there is a wisdom behind it and it is good
for His 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) benefits, will answer your question about
the health benefits, in order to increase the believers in faith in
the ruling, and so that non-Muslims may see one aspect of the greatness
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
concerning beautification enjoined by Allaah, which Allaah has prescribed
for His 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 He created them, and hence it is the perfection
of the haneefiyyah (pure monotheism) of the religion of Ibraaheem
(Abraham). The origin of the institution of circumcision as the perfection
of haneefiyyah was when Allaah made a covenant with Ibraaheem
and promised to make him an imaam (leader) of mankind, and promised
him 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
He 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 circumcised, 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 (interpretation of the meaning) –

“[Our Sibghah (religion)
is] the Sibghah (religion) of Allaah (Islam) and which Sibghah (religion)
can be better than Allaah’s? And we are His worshippers”

[al-Baqarah
2:138] –

as referring
to circumcision.

For
the haneefs (pure monotheists, i.e., Muslims), circumcision has
the same status as baptism does for the worshippers of the cross (i.e.,
Christians). They purify their children – as they say – when they baptize
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):

“[Our Sibghah (religion)
is] the Sibghah (religion) of Allaah (Islam) and which Sibghah (religion)
can be better than Allaah’s? And we are His worshippers”

[al-Baqarah
2:138] –

… So Allaah
has made circumcision a symbol of those who belong to Him and to His
religion, and who attribute themselves to Him as being utterly enslaved
to Him alone…

The point
here is that the religion of Allaah is haneefiyyah (pure monotheism)
which fills the heart with knowledge and love of Him and sincerity towards
Him, and worship of Him alone with no partner or associate, and which
marks the body with the characteristics of the fitrah, namely circumcision,
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 (toothbrush 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.

(Tuhfat
al-Mawdood bi Ahkaam al-Mawlood by Ibn al-Qayyim, p. 351)

Circumcision
also has health benefits and brings a lot of benefits to the boy in
his life. (See Question # 2425).

It is not
essential for the child to remain as he is when he comes forth from
his mother’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.
The Prophet of Islam

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Remove the harm from
him.”

The 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:

Dr. Muhammad ‘Ali al-Baar (a
member of the Royal College of Surgeons in the UK and a consultant to
the Islamic Medicine department of the King Fahd Centre for Medical
Research in the King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah) says in his book
al-Khitaan (Circumcision):

“Circumcision of newborn
boys (i.e., within the first month of life) brings numerous health benefits,
including:

1
– Protection 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 exposed
to numerous diseases in the future, the most serious of which is cancer
of the penis.

2
– Infections of the urethra. Many
studies have proven thatuncircumcised
boys are more exposed to infection of the urethra. In some studies the
rate was 39 times more among uncircumcised boys. In other studies the
rate was ten times more. Other studies showed that 95% of children who
suffered from infections of the urethra were uncircumcised, whereas
the rate among circumcised children did not exceed 5%.

In children, infection of the
urethra is serious in some cases. In the study by Wisewell on 88 children
who suffered infections of the urethra, in 36 % of them, the same bacteria
was found in the blood also. Three of them contracted meningitis, and
two suffered renal failure. Two others died as a result of the spread
of the micro-organisms throughout the body.

3
– Protection against cancer of the penis:the studies agree that cancer of the penis is almost non-existent
among circumcised men, whereas the rate among uncircumcised men is not
insignificant. In the US the rate of penile cancer among circumcised
men is zero, whilst among uncircumcised men it is 2.2 in every 100,000
of the uncircumcised population. As most of the inhabitants of the US
are circumcised, the cases of this cancer there are between 750 and
1000 per year. If the population were not circumcised, the number of
cases would reach 3000. In countries where boys are not circumcised,
such as China, Uganda and Puerto Rico, penile cancer represents between
12-22 % of all cancers found in men; this is a very high percentage.

4
– Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).Researchers found that the STDs which are transmitted via sexual
contact (usually because of fornication/adultery and homosexuality)
spread more among those who are not circumcised, especially herpes,
soft chancres, syphilis, candida, gonorrhea and genital warts.

There are numerous modern studies
which confirm that circumcision reduces the possibility of contracting
AIDS when compared to their uncircumcised counterparts. But that does
not rule out the possibility of a circumcised man contracting AIDS as
the result of sexual contact with a person who has AIDS. Circumcision
is not a protection against it, and there is no real way of protecting
oneself against the many sexually transmitted diseases apart from avoiding
fornication/adultery, promiscuity, homosexuality and other repugnant
practices. (From this we can see the wisdom of Islamic sharee’ah in
forbidding fornication/adultery and homosexuality).

5
– Protection of wives against cervical cancer.
Researchers have noted that the wives of circumcised men have less risk
of getting cervical cancer than the wives of uncircumcised men.

From al-Khitaan, p.
76, by Dr. Muhammad al-Baar.

And Allaah knows best.

Reference:
Professor Wisewell, published in the American Family Doctor Magazine,
issue no. 41, 1991 CE.