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.

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In this fatwa:

1- Islam encourages Muslims to seek medication and make use of modern science in this field as long as there is no violation to the dictates of the Shari`ah.

2- As for massage therapy, it’s permissible, in principle, provided that it does not involve uncovering the awrah (parts of one’s body which should not be exposed in front of others).

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Focusing more on the question you posed, Sheikh Abdel-Khaliq Hasan Ash-Shareef, a prominent Azharite scholar, states:

As far as Islam is concerned, there is nothing wrong in carrying out massage therapy for relaxing the muscles so long as three considerations are observed:

1- The awrah (private parts) is covered.

2- It is done by the person of the same gender, i.e. a woman for a woman and by a man for a man. In all cases, the massage therapy should be carried out in an isolated place, away from people.

3- The person who does it should be trustworthy that he/she does not describe the features of the body of the patient to other people whether they are men or women.

Mufti Ebrahim Desai, a senior lecturer in hadith in Darul Uloom Numaniyyah in South Africa, adds:

Direct massage therapy by skin contact done by a person of the same gender is permissible only within areas which are not restricted and not regarded as awrah.

In the case of a male, the area between the navel and knee is private. It is permissible for a male to massage a male by applying oil on his shoulders and back in line with the navel area.

Almighty Allah knows best.

Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.