Reconciling the Ahaadeeth about ‘Eesa having brown or reddish skin

20-7-2015 | IslamWeb

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 may Allaah have mercy upon them 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 may Allaah have mercy upon him cited another attempt to reconcile between the two descriptions from Al-Qurtubi may Allaah have mercy upon him 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 may Allaah have mercy upon him 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.

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