Description of the Complexion of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ

Al-Bukhārī states (1): “Yahyā ibn Bukayr narrated to us; al-Layth narrated to us, from Khālid—meaning Ibn Yazīd—from Saʿīd, that is, Ibn Abī Hilāl, from Rabīʿah ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who said:

‘I heard Anas ibn Mālik describing the Prophet ﷺ. He said: He was of medium build among his people—neither tall nor short—of a luminous complexion (2): neither an excessively pale white nor a dark brown. His hair was neither tightly curled nor completely straight. Revelation came to him when he was forty years old; he remained in Mecca for ten years receiving revelation and in Madinah for another ten (3). When he passed away, there were not twenty white hairs in his head and beard.’

Rabīʿah added: ‘I once saw some of his hair, and it had a reddish hue. I asked about it and was told, “It has reddened from perfume.”

Al-Bukhārī also said (4): ‘ʿAbdullāh ibn Yūsuf narrated to us; Mālik ibn Anas informed us, from Rabīʿah ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Anas ibn Mālik (may Allah be pleased with him), who said:

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was neither conspicuously tall nor short, neither a stark white devoid of redness (5) nor dark-complexioned. His hair was neither tightly curled nor lank. Allah sent him as a prophet at the age of forty; he stayed in Mecca for ten years and in Madinah for ten years, and Allah took him at the age of sixty (6). There were not twenty white hairs in his head and beard.”

Muslim likewise transmitted this ḥadith (7) from Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā, from Mālik; and also from Qutaybah, Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb, and ʿAlī ibn Ḥujar, all of them from Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar; and from al-Qāsim ibn Zakarīyā, from Khālid ibn Mukhallad, from Sulaymān ibn Bilāl—all through Rabīʿah with the same wording.

Al-Tirmidhī and al-Nasāʾī (8) both recorded it from Qutaybah, from Mālik; al-Tirmidhī graded it ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī (9) said: ‘Thābit narrated it from Anas with the wording, “He was of a luminous complexion.” He added: “Ḥumayd narrated it as …”’