Is there a scientific medical principle that supports what you said regarding the permissibility of female circumcision in hot regions as opposed to cold regions?
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The questioner : You spoke about the topic of circumcision and the difference between men and women, and you also spoke about the difference between women in hot countries and women in cold countries. Are you relying on a scientific principle in this matter?
The Shaykh : Of course, we convey what the scholars establish first in the books of Islamic jurisprudence, and the doctors also in their anatomical studies.
The questioner : I meant by scientific principle the doctors and geologists. Is this accurate, or is there a difference between...
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you, I think I have answered your question. First, I said that the jurists mention this, and second, the doctors mention this fact in their anatomical studies. This is a matter that has been studied in the recent era in scientific medical journals in Cairo, including religious journals that have transmitted this fact from scientific medical books. I have clarified this, including from the past, the journal *Nur al-Islam* (Light of Islam), which was published by al-Azhar and then became published under the title *Nur al-Islam*. These are known facts from the scientific and medical aspects. We do not say anything, of course, except with knowledge. But it is not hidden from you that I am not a doctor. Even if I were a doctor, I would not be a doctor of anatomy only; a person might be an internal medicine doctor and know nothing about anatomy, and vice versa. Sciences are specializations, and it is obligatory for every scholar to specialize in one science and then benefit from the other sciences and the specialists in them. My concern here is in what I said regarding the distinction between women in hot countries in that matter and women in cold countries. I am a transmitter, not a scholar. No one among people, no matter how more complete they are than me, can be like me, meaning any person. A man might have knowledge of grammar but no knowledge of Qur'anic exegesis, no knowledge of hadith, no knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence. What is his obligation if he speaks about Islamic jurisprudence? He should say, "I heard such and such an issue mentioned in hadith," and so on. Because issues are matters of specialization. And Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says:[An-Nahl 16:43] This is my answer. And above every possessor of knowledge is the All-Knowing. So if you have something to benefit us with in this particular matter, welcome and easy.
The Shaykh : Of course, we convey what the scholars establish first in the books of Islamic jurisprudence, and the doctors also in their anatomical studies.
The questioner : I meant by scientific principle the doctors and geologists. Is this accurate, or is there a difference between...
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you, I think I have answered your question. First, I said that the jurists mention this, and second, the doctors mention this fact in their anatomical studies. This is a matter that has been studied in the recent era in scientific medical journals in Cairo, including religious journals that have transmitted this fact from scientific medical books. I have clarified this, including from the past, the journal *Nur al-Islam* (Light of Islam), which was published by al-Azhar and then became published under the title *Nur al-Islam*. These are known facts from the scientific and medical aspects. We do not say anything, of course, except with knowledge. But it is not hidden from you that I am not a doctor. Even if I were a doctor, I would not be a doctor of anatomy only; a person might be an internal medicine doctor and know nothing about anatomy, and vice versa. Sciences are specializations, and it is obligatory for every scholar to specialize in one science and then benefit from the other sciences and the specialists in them. My concern here is in what I said regarding the distinction between women in hot countries in that matter and women in cold countries. I am a transmitter, not a scholar. No one among people, no matter how more complete they are than me, can be like me, meaning any person. A man might have knowledge of grammar but no knowledge of Qur'anic exegesis, no knowledge of hadith, no knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence. What is his obligation if he speaks about Islamic jurisprudence? He should say, "I heard such and such an issue mentioned in hadith," and so on. Because issues are matters of specialization. And Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says: