Khitan (circumcision)
Encyclopedia
Khitān or Khatna is the term for male circumcision
carried out as an Islamic rite, to introduce males into Islam and as a sign of belonging to the wider Islamic community. It is also referred to by the term Taharah, 'purity'.
Islamic circumcision is analogous to Jewish circumcision
, although there are a number of key differences. Muslims are currently the largest single religious group to practice widespread circumcision. However, it is not a condition for converting to Islam or carrying out religious duties. Circumcision is not mentioned in the Qur'an
, but rather in the hadith
.
The Qur'an itself does not mention circumcision. In the time of Muhammad
, circumcision was carried out by many Arabian tribes
, among them Jews and Christians for religious reasons. The ritual dates back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad. According to tradition Muhammad was born without a foreskin (aposthetic). Many of his early disciples were circumcised to symbolise their inclusion within the emerging Islamic community. These facts are mentioned several times in the hadith
. Some hadith group circumcision with the fitra
(acts considered to be of a refined person). Other such acts include: clipping or shaving pubic hair
, cutting nails, cleaning teeth, plucking or shaving the hair under the armpits and clipping (or trimming) the moustache. (Reported in the hadiths of Sahih al-Bukhari
and Sahih Muslim
.) So, despite its absence from the Qur’an, it has been a religious norm from the beginning of Islam. However, there is another version of the hadith which does not name circumcision as one of the characteristics of fitra and yet another hadith which names ten characteristics, again without naming circumcision. There are arguments from the Qur'an which oppose male circumcision, many Qur'an alone
followers adhere to this principle and argue circumcision to be against the Qur'an.
Amongst Ulema
(Muslim legal scholars), there are differing opinions about the compulsion of circumcision in Sharia
(Islamic law). Imam
s Abū Ḥanīfa, founder of the Hanafi
school of Fiqh
(Islamic jurisprudence), and Malik ibn Anas
, maintain that circumcision is a Sunnah
Mu'akkadah—not obligatory but highly recommended. The Shafi`i and Hanbali
schools see it as binding on all Muslims and the Shafi'i for both male and female.
n judge Mustafa Kamal al-Mahdawi, and the Egypt
ian feminist
Dr. Nawal El Saadawi
, who links it with her own struggle against female genital mutilation
. Some Quranists
claim circumcision is haram
, claiming that suras such as forbids altering one's body, and suras such as which says man was created perfectly.
. According to some hadith (Abdullah Ibn Jabir
and Aisha
), Muhammad circumcised his grandsons on the seventh day after their birth. This opinion is popular amongst the hadith and Islamic jurists.
, serving to introduce him into the new status of an adult. The procedure is sometimes semi-public, accompanied with music, special foods, and much festivity.
Traditional circumcisions however are steadily becoming rarer throughout the Islamic world
, with many Muslim families preferring to have their sons circumcised at birth, or if it is done at an older age it is normally done by a doctor under local anesthetic
. There is no equivalent of a Jewish mohel
in Islam. Circumcisions are usually carried out in a clinic or hospital. The circumciser is not required to be a Muslim. The general 'style' of circumcision is the traditional stretch and cut which is typically reasonably tight but leaves a lot of the inner foreskin
.
whereas most of them say it is not.
Circumcision
Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and ....
carried out as an Islamic rite, to introduce males into Islam and as a sign of belonging to the wider Islamic community. It is also referred to by the term Taharah, 'purity'.
Islamic circumcision is analogous to Jewish circumcision
Brit milah
The brit milah is a Jewish religious circumcision ceremony performed on 8-day old male infants by a mohel. The brit milah is followed by a celebratory meal .-Biblical references:...
, although there are a number of key differences. Muslims are currently the largest single religious group to practice widespread circumcision. However, it is not a condition for converting to Islam or carrying out religious duties. Circumcision is not mentioned in the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
, but rather in the hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
.
Religious sources
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
, circumcision was carried out by many Arabian tribes
Tribes of Arabia
Tribes of Arabia refers to Arab clans hailing from the Arabian Peninsula.Much of the lineage provided before Ma'ad relies on biblical genealogy and therefore questions persist concerning the accuracy of this segment of Arab genealogy...
, among them Jews and Christians for religious reasons. The ritual dates back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad. According to tradition Muhammad was born without a foreskin (aposthetic). Many of his early disciples were circumcised to symbolise their inclusion within the emerging Islamic community. These facts are mentioned several times in the hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
. Some hadith group circumcision with the fitra
Fitra
Fitra, or fitrah , is an Arabic word meaning ‘disposition’, ‘nature’, ‘constitution’, or ‘instinct’. In a mystical context, it can connote intuition or insight...
(acts considered to be of a refined person). Other such acts include: clipping or shaving pubic hair
Pubic hair
Pubic hair is hair in the frontal genital area, the crotch, and sometimes at the top of the inside of the legs; these areas form the pubic region....
, cutting nails, cleaning teeth, plucking or shaving the hair under the armpits and clipping (or trimming) the moustache. (Reported in the hadiths of Sahih al-Bukhari
Sahih al-Bukhari
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī , as it is commonly referred to, is one of the six canonical hadith collections of Islam. These prophetic traditions, or hadith, were collected by the Persian Muslim scholar Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari, after being transmitted orally for generations. Muslims view this as one of...
and Sahih Muslim
Sahih Muslim
Sahih Muslim is one of the Six major collections of the hadith in Sunni Islam, oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. It is the second most authentic hadith collection after Sahih Al-Bukhari, and is highly acclaimed by Sunni Muslims...
.) So, despite its absence from the Qur’an, it has been a religious norm from the beginning of Islam. However, there is another version of the hadith which does not name circumcision as one of the characteristics of fitra and yet another hadith which names ten characteristics, again without naming circumcision. There are arguments from the Qur'an which oppose male circumcision, many Qur'an alone
Qur'an alone
Quranism is an Islamic denomination that holds the Qur'an to be the only canonical text in Islam. Quranists reject the religious authority of Hadith and often Sunnah, libraries compiled by later scholars who catalogued narratives of what the Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said and done,...
followers adhere to this principle and argue circumcision to be against the Qur'an.
Amongst Ulema
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
(Muslim legal scholars), there are differing opinions about the compulsion of circumcision in Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
(Islamic law). Imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
s Abū Ḥanīfa, founder of the Hanafi
Hanafi
The Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhab in jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Persian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani...
school of Fiqh
Fiqh
Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the code of conduct expounded in the Quran, often supplemented by tradition and implemented by the rulings and interpretations of Islamic jurists....
(Islamic jurisprudence), and Malik ibn Anas
Malik ibn Anas
Mālik ibn Anas ibn Mālik ibn Abī 'Āmir al-Asbahī is known as "Imam Malik," the "Sheikh of Islam", the "Proof of the Community," and "Imam of the Abode of Emigration." He was one of the most highly respected scholars of fiqh in Sunni Islam...
, maintain that circumcision is a Sunnah
Sunnah
The word literally means a clear, well trodden, busy and plain surfaced road. In the discussion of the sources of religion, Sunnah denotes the practice of Prophet Muhammad that he taught and practically instituted as a teacher of the sharī‘ah and the best exemplar...
Mu'akkadah—not obligatory but highly recommended. The Shafi`i and Hanbali
Hanbali
The Hanbali school is one the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. The jurisprudence school traces back to Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal but was institutionalized by his students. Hanbali jurisprudence is considered very strict and conservative, especially regarding questions of dogma...
schools see it as binding on all Muslims and the Shafi'i for both male and female.
Hadith rejectors
There is a Quran alone movement within Islam that rejects making male circumcision a religious requirement due to the fact it is not mentioned in the Qur'an. Advocates of this view point to several Qur'anic verses that indicate the perfection of creation , as well as common perceptions that circumcision is necessary for reasons of hygiene. Muslim activists include Canadian Dr. Arif Bhimji, LibyaLibya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
n judge Mustafa Kamal al-Mahdawi, and the Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
Dr. Nawal El Saadawi
Nawal El Saadawi
Nawal El Saadawi , born October 27, 1931, is an Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist. She has written many books on the subject of women in Islam, paying particular attention to the practice of female genital mutilation in her society....
, who links it with her own struggle against female genital mutilation
Female genital cutting
Female genital mutilation , also known as female genital cutting and female circumcision, is defined by the World Health Organization as "all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons."FGM...
. Some Quranists
Qur'an alone
Quranism is an Islamic denomination that holds the Qur'an to be the only canonical text in Islam. Quranists reject the religious authority of Hadith and often Sunnah, libraries compiled by later scholars who catalogued narratives of what the Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said and done,...
claim circumcision is haram
Haram
The Arabic term has a meaning of "sanctuary" or "holy site" in Islam.-Etymology:The Arabic language has two separate words, and , both derived from the same triliteral Semitic root . Both of these words can mean "forbidden" and/or "sacred" in a general way, but each has also developed some...
, claiming that suras such as forbids altering one's body, and suras such as which says man was created perfectly.
Time for circumcision
Islamic sources do not fix a particular time for circumcision. It depends on family, region and country. A majority of Ulema however take the view that parents should get their child circumcised before the age of ten. The preferred age is usually seven although some Muslims are circumcised as early as on the seventh day after birth and as late as at the commencement of pubertyPuberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...
. According to some hadith (Abdullah Ibn Jabir
Jabir ibn Abd-Allah
Jabir ibn 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn Haram al-Ansari was a prominent companion of Muhammad and his descendants, the Shi'a Imams.-Early life:Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari was born in Yathrib 15 years before the Hijra. He belonged to a poor family of Yathrib. He was from the tribe of Khazraj. His mother...
and Aisha
Aisha
Aisha bint Abu Bakr also transcribed as was Muhammad's favorite wife...
), Muhammad circumcised his grandsons on the seventh day after their birth. This opinion is popular amongst the hadith and Islamic jurists.
Procedure
Whereas Jewish circumcision is closely bound by ritual timing and tradition, Islamic circumcision does not have a strictly mandated procedure or form of circumcision. These tend to change across cultures, families, and time. In some Islamic countries, circumcision is performed after Muslim boys have learned to recite the whole Qur'an from start to finish. In Malaysia and other regions, the boy usually undergoes the operation between the ages of ten and twelve, and is thus a puberty riteRite of passage
A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures....
, serving to introduce him into the new status of an adult. The procedure is sometimes semi-public, accompanied with music, special foods, and much festivity.
Traditional circumcisions however are steadily becoming rarer throughout the Islamic world
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...
, with many Muslim families preferring to have their sons circumcised at birth, or if it is done at an older age it is normally done by a doctor under local anesthetic
Local anesthetic
A local anesthetic is a drug that causes reversible local anesthesia, generally for the aim of having local analgesic effect, that is, inducing absence of pain sensation, although other local senses are often affected as well...
. There is no equivalent of a Jewish mohel
Mohel
A mohel is a Jewish person trained in the practice of brit milah "covenant of circumcision."-Etymology of the Hebrew and Aramaic term:...
in Islam. Circumcisions are usually carried out in a clinic or hospital. The circumciser is not required to be a Muslim. The general 'style' of circumcision is the traditional stretch and cut which is typically reasonably tight but leaves a lot of the inner foreskin
Foreskin
In male human anatomy, the foreskin is a generally retractable double-layered fold of skin and mucous membrane that covers the glans penis and protects the urinary meatus when the penis is not erect...
.
Celebrations
In Indonesia, after a child is being circumcised, there is a feast called Perayaan Sunatan, but some ulemas in Indonesia say this is bid'ahBid'ah
Bid‘ah is any type of innovation in Islam. It linguistically means "innovation, novelty, heretical doctrine, heresy". In contrast to the English term "innovation", in Arabic, the word bid'ah generally carries a negative connotation...
whereas most of them say it is not.
See also
- History of male circumcisionHistory of male circumcisionThe origination of male circumcision is not known with certainty. It has been variously proposed that it began as a religious sacrifice, as a rite of passage marking a boy's entrance into adulthood, as a form of sympathetic magic to ensure virility or fertility, as a means of enhancing sexual...
- CircumcisionCircumcisionMale circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and ....
- ForeskinForeskinIn male human anatomy, the foreskin is a generally retractable double-layered fold of skin and mucous membrane that covers the glans penis and protects the urinary meatus when the penis is not erect...
- Brit milahBrit milahThe brit milah is a Jewish religious circumcision ceremony performed on 8-day old male infants by a mohel. The brit milah is followed by a celebratory meal .-Biblical references:...