Shaykhs Being Overweight
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Shaykh Mashhūr Hasan Āl Salmān
(hafidhahullāh)
ON SHAYKHS BEING
OVERWEIGHT1
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Question:
“Some fat-shame the Mashāyikh for having a large belly. Is this impermissible?”
Answer from Shaykh Mashhūr (hafidhahullāh):
Why is this impermissible? Is there daleel that this is impermissible (i.e. to have a large belly)?
Our Prophet (sallAllāhu ’alayhi wassallam) informed that at the end of time being overweight will
increase. So being overweight will increase at the end of time but this does not indicate that it is
impermissible. At the end of time more people will be overweight. When ash-Shāfi’ī met
Muhammad ibn Hasan ash-Shaybānī, the Hanafī jurist and of the most knowledgeable of the
Hanafī scholars according to the Hanafī jurists and their arrangement of Imāms: the top being
Imām Abū Haneefah; then Abū Yūsuf Ya’qūb ibn Ibrāheem al-Qādī; and then at number three
after these two, Muhammad bin Hasan ash-Shaybānī.
Muhammad ibn Hasan was large, and when Imām ash-Shāfi’ī saw him, he joked with him and
said, “I have never ever seen good in a fat person, except in you Muhammad!” This is because
often the main interest of a fat person is sleep, food etc. generally. So Imām ash-Shāfi’ī said: “I
have never ever seen good in a fat person, except in you Muhammad!” Then they had their well-
known discussion on fiqh matters which was often recounted by the jurists of the world in the
past, because the discussions they had regarding fiqh were superb. If you want to strengthen
your fiqh comprehension, then you should search out these juristic discussions. Shaykh as-Sa’dī
1 Translation: ’AbdulHaq ibn Kofi ibn Kwesi al-Ashantī. Summarised from our Shaykh’s Q&A session
dated 16th September 2022 CE. It can be referred to here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvgUiTJPPPw
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Shaykhs Being Overweight
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has some fiqh discussions. And if you want complete pre-eminence in such fiqh debates then
look at the fiqh discussions of Imām ash-Shāfi’ī.
So it is affirmed from the Prophet (sallAllāhu ’alayhi wassallam) in al-Bukhārī in al-Adab al-Mufrad
that he met a Sahābī who was large, and the Prophet (sallAllāhu ’alayhi wassallam) wanted to teach
him, teach his Ummah and cultivate him, so the Prophet (sallAllāhu ’alayhi wassallam) placed his
hand on the man’s stomach and said, “If this was somewhere else it would be better.”
So being overweight will be common towards the end of time, yet some people are just like that
and possess weight. So, a fat person should not be censured or shamed, rather what is censured
is to seek out extra weight. I’ll ask you about women, which of the two are more desirable: large
women or slim women? [audience: “larger women”]. Obviously, preferences differ from person
to person. A woman possessing extra weight was desirable in the past and sought-after during
the first generations. Whoever reads al-Madkhal by Ibn al-Hajj, and it is of the books which goes
into the most detail regarding bida’, he mentions that a bida’ of the people of his time was to
plump up a woman to the extent that if she wanted to make Istinjā’ her hand could not even
reach to clean her ’Awrah due to being so overweight! So women used to over-exaggerate when
it came to additional weight, and we should also not forget what is mentioned in the Saheeh that
when the Prophet (sallAllāhu ’alayhi wassallam) was with ’Ā’ishah (radi Allāhu ’anhā), her mother
used to focus on increasing her weight before she was betrothed to the Prophet (sallAllāhu ’alayhi
wassallam). And the Prophet (sallAllāhu ’alayhi wassallam) addressed the women, the virgins prior to
getting married, “…if it was not for the brown seed (i.e. black seed), then your virgins would not get large.”2
Before when the virgin woman got married she would be plumped up and given black seed, this
used to be something sought-after by a husband. Today however, the woman has become like
the man and many men complain about their wives, why? Due to what is referred to as
‘development’ and so now females, especially among the younger generations, are not feminine
and so seek authority over you. Short hair, wearing trousers, shirts – all of which are associated
with the male, and so her appearance is that of the male. The basis for a woman is to wear that
associated with femininity. Your daughters should wear clothing associated with the feminine
and not that of the man, as otherwise it will be difficult for her to be obedient to her husband.
2 Translator’s note [’AbdulHaq]: this is relayed in at-Tabarānī in al-Awsat, no.3393, and
authenticated by al-Albānī in Ādāb uz-Zifāf, p.109.
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