Question: Is it permissible to remove an extra finger, or not?

The jurists say that it is not permissible, explaining this on the grounds of the risk involved. However, in view of the advances in medicine today, the correct view is that it is permissible, because this is the removal of a defect, not a matter of beautification. Were it a matter of beautification, it would be prohibited. Hence the Prophet ﷺ cursed “the woman who plucks facial hair and the one who has it plucked” (1), because she removes something Allah created for beautification. In this case, however, an extra finger is removed in order to eliminate a defect. Put yourself in the position of someone afflicted with this condition: would you not wish that people did not see you? Certainly; there is no doubt about it. Thus, the sound view is that, in our present time, removing an extra finger is permissible and there is nothing wrong with it.

This is analogous to what the scholars said regarding hemorrhoids. They said that removing hemorrhoids is prohibited, because the blood may continue to bleed until the person dies, making him the cause of his own death. Nowadays, however, this procedure has become simple and involves no kind of risk. Every situation has its appropriate ruling, and a ruling revolves with its effective cause, being present when it is present and absent when it is absent.

“And the slave’s fornication, theft, running away, and urinating in bed.”

His statement, “and the slave’s fornication”: if a slave commits fornication, his fornication is a non-physical defect. The apparent meaning of his words is that this applies even if it occurred only once, because it diminishes his value. If it becomes clear that the slave one purchased committed fornication, then if the slave is male, the matter is clear; and if female, the same applies. The author did not specify the age of the slave at the time of fornication. For this reason, the jurists differed. Some of them said that it is stipulated that