Answer
Wa `alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
Liposuction, which is removal of body fats by surgical methods, is allowed only for therapeutic purposes, such as when the fat is too much that it endangers one’s life or endangers a pregnancy.
Responding to the question, Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, states the following:
Muslims are not allowed to change permanently or semi-permanently any of their physical appearance, and this includes cosmetic plastic surgery.
The Quran quotes the Satan saying, {And surely I will command them and they will change Allah’s creation. Whoso chooses Satan for a patron instead of Allah is verily a loser and his loss is manifest.} (An-Nisaa’ 4:119)
Thus, changing the nature created by Allah is forbidden.
However, Muslims are also encouraged to be healthy and to seek medical help for their health problems. As such, plastic surgery for beautification per se is not allowed.
But undergoing plastic surgery to restore badly deformed body parts (due to accident or burn) is allowed since it will try to restore the part to the original state and it is something done out of necessity and not vanity.
Liposuction, which is removal of body fats by surgical methods, is allowed only for therapeutic purposes, such as when the fat is too much that it endangers one’s life or endangers a pregnancy. But it should satisfy the following conditions:
1- That there are no other safer and cheaper methods to lose weight.
2- That the liposuction procedure itself has been agreed upon by credible doctors to be safe or with a very high chance of success.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.