The Most Beautiful Prophet ﷺ

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Prophet Muhammad ﷺ met Prophet Yusuf (alaihi salaam) (Joseph) on the night of Miraj (Ascension) and described him in the following words: “I saw Yusuf (peace of Allah be upon him) who had been given half of (world) beauty. He welcomed me prayed for my well-being.”[1] Prophet Yusuf (alaihi salaam) was extremely beautiful in his appearance. However in a hadith the Prophet's wife and mother of the believers Aisha (r.a) said "if the women who saw Yusuf (aalaihi salaam) cut their hands seeing the beauty of Yusuf. They would have cut their throats if they saw my Yusuf." (referring to Prophet Muhammad)[2] Some may say that Aisha (r.a) may be exaggerating due to her immense love for Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. However if we read about the overall personality and appearance as described to us then she may be very correct after all. Even though Yusuf (a.s) was given beautiful face, our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was given beauty not only in his face but also his figure, character, manners, habits, deeds, worshiping and all his actions, in almost everything we can find about him.

An authentic narration of Imam Hassan ibn Ali (r.a) who narrated from his maternal uncle named Hind Bin Abi Haalah (r.a) (a step brother of Fatima (r.a)) who described the Prophet ﷺ in the following words:

“He had great qualities and attributes in him, others also held him in high esteem. His mubarak (blessed) face shone like the full moon. He was slightly taller than a man of middle height, but shorter than a tall person. His mubarak (blessed) head was moderately large. His mubarak (blessed) hair was slightly twisted. If his hair became parted naturally in the middle he left it so, otherwise he did not habitually make an effort to part his hair in the middle. Rasoolullah ﷺ had a very luminous complexion, and a wide forehead. He had dense and fine hair on his eye brows. Both eye brows were separate and did not meet each other in the middle. There was a vein between them that used to expand when he became angry. His nose was prominent and had a nur (Light) and lustre on it. When one first looked at him, it seemed as if he had a large nose, but looking at it carefully showed that the lustre and beauty made it look large, otherwise in itself the nose was not large. His beard was full and dense. The pupil of his eye was black. His cheeks were full and full of flesh. The mouth of Rasoolullah ﷺ was moderately wide. (He did not have a small mouth). His teeth were thin and bright. The front teeth had a slight space between them. There was a thin line of hair from the chest to the navel. Besides this line neither the chest nor the stomach had other hair on it. His neck was beautiful and thin, like the neck of a statue shaved clean, the colour of which was clear, shining and beautiful like silver. All the parts of his body were of moderate size, and fully fleshed. His body was proportionately jointed. His chest and stomach were in line, but his chest was broad and wide. The space between his shoulders was wide. The bones of his joints were strong and large (denoting strength). When he removed his clothing, his body looked bright and had a lustre i.e. those parts of the body that were not covered by his clothing were bright and shining, compared with those parts of the body that were covered by his clothing. His forearm was long and palms were wide. The palms and both feet were fully fleshed. The fingers and toes were moderately long. The soles of his feet were a bit deep. His feet were smooth, because of their cleanliness and smoothness the water did not remain there but flowed away quickly. When he walked, he lifted his legs with vigor, leaned slightly forward and placed his feet softly on the ground. He walked at a quick pace and took rather a long step. He did not take small steps. When he walked it seemed as if he was descending to a lower place. When he looked at something he turned his whole body towards it. He always looked down (due to humbleness). His sight was focused more to the ground than towards the sky. His habit was to look down towards the ground, but he also waited for the wahi (revelation), therefore while waiting he often looked towards the sky. Otherwise he usually looked down towards the ground. His modest habit was to look at something with a light eye, i.e. he looked at a thing, with modesty and bashfulness, hence he did not stare at anything. While walking he asked the Sahabah (Companions) to walk in front, and he himself walked behind. He made salaam (peace and greetings) to whomsoever he met.”[3]

Leading scholar Hamza Yusuf informs us how such a description of his blessed appearance has made an impact among Muslims throughout the centuries of carrying this tradition: “One of things about the ulema, they say mahabba (love) for most human beings arises out of three things. The first is the physical love. You see something beautiful and your heart inclines towards it. So He put the love of beauty in the hearts of human beings. The ulema have maintained the physical description of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ because that is a level of mahabba — to actually hear how beautiful he was. He was the most beautiful human being. He was more beautiful than Yusuf (Joseph). One of the gifts of this ummah is that we have an exact description of the Prophet ﷺ, it is as if you are looking at him. There was a desire to keep the description of the Prophet ﷺ so people could have a physical attraction to him as well as the first stage of love.” [4]

References:
[1] Sahih Muslim 162 a – Sunnah.com
[2] Shama'il - Imam Tirmidhi 
[3] Book 1, Hadith 7 - Shama'il Muhammadiyah الشمائل المحمدية by Imam Tirmidhi – Sunnah.com 
[4] Yusuf, Shaykh Hamza. 2009. ShaykhHamza.com. January. Accessed 02 23, 2019. http://shaykhhamza.com/transcript/Description-of-the-Prophet(SAW).

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