Home
Discover Islam
Quran Recitations
Lectures
Fatwa
Articles
Fiqh
E-Books
Women
Boys & Girls 
Enter Question
View By Subject
Fatwa Of The Week
Selected Fatwa
Fatwa CenterReconciling the Ahaadeeth about ‘Eesa having brown or reddish skin
Question
AslamualakaumI heard that there were two diffrent hadiths about Isa (as) skin colour, one says red one says tan. I read your fatwa on Isa hair, that was a good way to look at the hadithHow do we relate those two hadith.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
Al-Haafith Ibn Hajar 
reconciled between the two descriptions in his book Fat-h Al-Baari. He said,
“… this difference is similar to the difference in whether he was Aadam (of brown complexion) or red-skinned. Red in the speech of the Arabs means fair-complexioned with a reddish undertone, and the term Aadam denotes brown complexion. The two descriptions may be reconciled by saying that he had reddish skin for a reason such as fatigue, but he was normally brown-skinned.” [Fat-h Al-Baari]
Az-Zarqaani 
cited another attempt to reconcile between the two descriptions from Al-Qurtubi in his commentary on the Muwatta’,
“Al-Qurtubi said, "Perhaps the dark complexion turned a brownish color close to red, as was the prevalent color among the Arabs. The two versions of the report can thereby be reconciled."”
As-Saffaareeni said,
“There is no contradiction between reddish and dark skin because his brownish color could have been unmixed as stated earlier … The term Aadam denotes slight brownness, and having an unmixed complexion does not prevent reddishness. Ibn Hajar said, "This is because many people with dark complexion may have reddish cheeks."” [Lawaami‘ Al-Anwaar]
Allaah Knows best.
Search Fatwa
Fatwa Subject
