The first view is that he was born circumcised, with his umbilical cord already severed (1). A hadith to this effect has been narrated, but it is not authentic; Abū al-Faraj (2) mentioned it in al-Mawdū‘āt (Fabricated Hadiths) (3). No reliably established hadith supports this, nor is it one of his unique distinctions, for many people are born circumcised.

Al-Maymūnī said: “I asked Abū ‘Abd Allāh about a question that had been put to me: a circumciser had circumcised a boy but had not completed the procedure. He replied, ‘If the circumcision has gone beyond halfway up the glans, he should not repeat it, because the glans grows thicker; the thicker it becomes, the higher the circumcision extends. But if the circumcision falls short of halfway, I used to hold that he should repeat it.’ I said, ‘But repeating it is extremely difficult, and there may be fears for the boy’s safety if it is repeated.’ He replied, ‘I do not know.’ Then he said to me, ‘There is a man here whose son was born circumcised, and he was deeply distressed by this. I said to him, “If Allah has spared you the trouble, why are you distressed about this?”’” End of quotation (4).

Our companion Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muhammad ibn ‘Uthmān al-Khalīlī, the hadith scholar in Jerusalem, told us that he was born in this condition and that his family did not circumcise him (5). People say of someone born in this condition, “The moon circumcised him.” This is one of their superstitions (6).