His height ﷺ
Anas ibn Malik, who served him ﷺ for ten years, describes him thus: “He was neither very tall nor short, neither of a chalky white nor brown, and his hair was neither tightly curled nor straight” (Bukhari 3548). In another version, he calls him “of medium height among the people” (Bukhari 3547).
Al-Bara ibn Azib gives the same man: “He was of medium height, broad-shouldered, and his hair reached his earlobes. I saw him in a red garment: I have never seen anything more beautiful” (Bukhari 3551).
Ali adds features that only someone close could give: thick hands and feet, a large head, big joints. “When he walked, he leaned forward, as if descending a slope. I saw no one like him, before him or after him” (Tirmidhi 3637, graded authentic by al-Tirmidhi and al-Albani). Anas notes the same gait (Muslim 2330).
His complexion ﷺ
Anas’s word is azhar: a fair and radiant complexion (Bukhari 3547; Muslim 2330). He specifies that it was not a chalky white, and not brown either (Bukhari 3548). Abu Juhayfa, who saw him ﷺ towards the end of his life, calls him “white” (Bukhari 3544).
One version from Anas, however, says asmar, usually translated as “brown” (Tirmidhi 1754). Ibn Hajar resolves the difficulty: what Anas rules out is an intense white with no trace of red or a dark brown, and his complexion ﷺ was a white mingled with red, which the Arabs could call asmar (Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari, VI, 569).
His face ﷺ
Al-Bara calls him ﷺ “the most beautiful of men in face” (Bukhari 3549). He is asked one day: “Was his face like a sword?” He answers: “No, like the moon” (Bukhari 3552). Jabir ibn Samura receives the same question: “No, it was like the sun and the moon, and it was round” (Muslim 2344).
He ﷺ had a wide mouth, long eyes and little flesh on his heels (Muslim 2339).
This face hid nothing. Ka’b ibn Malik says so of his joy ﷺ: “When he was happy, his face lit up, as if it were a piece of the moon, and we knew it by that” (Bukhari 3556). Abu Sa’id says so of his displeasure: “When he saw something he disliked, we could tell it from his face” (Bukhari 6102).
His hair and his beard ﷺ
His hair was neither tightly curled nor straight (Bukhari 3548). It reached his earlobes, or his shoulders in another version of the same account (Bukhari 3551). He ﷺ at first let it fall, like the People of the Book, then he parted it (Bukhari 3558). He had a full beard (Muslim 2344).
The white hairs were counted. At his death, says Anas, he ﷺ did not have twenty, on his head and in his beard together (Bukhari 3548). Abd Allah ibn Busr, asked whether he was an old man, answers that he had a few white hairs below his lower lip (Bukhari 3546). Jabir ibn Samura had seen them on the front of his head and in his beard: when oiled, they did not show (Muslim 2344).
Did he ﷺ dye his hair? Anas answers that he did not have enough white for that (Bukhari 5894). But Umm Salama once showed some of his hair, dyed (Bukhari 5897). Both accounts are in al-Bukhari, and we leave them side by side.
His grandson al-Hasan resembled him. Abu Bakr, seeing him playing with the children, lifted him onto his shoulders: “May my father be his ransom! He resembles the Prophet ﷺ, not Ali”, and Ali laughed (Bukhari 3542).
The seal between his shoulders ﷺ
Between his shoulders he bore a mark, which his Companions called the seal of prophethood. Al-Sa’ib ibn Yazid saw it as a child, when his aunt took him to the Prophet ﷺ because he was ill: the Prophet ﷺ passed his hand over his head and prayed for him, and the boy, stepping behind him, saw the seal, the size of the button of a small tent (Bukhari 3541; Muslim 2345).
Jabir ibn Samura compares it to a pigeon’s egg, the colour of his body ﷺ (Muslim 2344). Abd Allah ibn Sarjis, for his part, describes a cluster near the top of the left shoulder, with moles (Muslim 2346). The link with the accounts of Bahira is on the page Bahira and his youth.
His hand and his scent ﷺ
“I have touched neither silk nor brocade softer than the palm of the Prophet ﷺ, and I have never smelled a fragrance better than his scent”, says Anas (Bukhari 3561).
Jabir ibn Samura was a child when the Prophet ﷺ, coming out from prayer, passed his hand over the cheeks of the little ones, one after another: “I felt in his hand a coolness, or a fragrance, as if he had drawn it from a perfumer’s box” (Muslim 2329).
The mother of Anas, Umm Sulaym, used to collect his sweat when he ﷺ took his midday rest at her home. He woke and asked her what she was doing. “It is your sweat: we put it in our perfume, and it is among the finest of perfumes” (Muslim 2331). When his own death came, Anas asked that some of it be put in the spices for his body (Bukhari 6281).
The gaze of a stranger
During the Hijra, he ﷺ stopped at the tent of Umm Ma’bad, a woman of Khuza’a who did not know who he was. Her husband, on returning, asked her to describe him:
“I saw a man of radiant countenance and fine form. […] When he was silent, gravity rested on him; when he spoke, he rose and splendour covered him. His speech was sweet and clear, neither too short nor too long, like pearls falling from a string. The most beautiful of men from afar, the most pleasing from near” (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, II, 261).
This account is not in al-Bukhari, and its chains are debated. Ibn Kathir nonetheless calls it famous, reported by chains that strengthen one another (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, II, 257), and al-Hakim grades it authentic (al-Salihi, III, 244). We give it as such.
The portraits we do not use
Two famous portraits are not taken up here.
The portrait of Hind ibn Abi Hala. It is the most complete: al-Hasan asks his uncle for it, and he describes everything, from the light of his face to his gait (al-Tirmidhi, al-Shama’il, 8). Al-Albani grades its chain very weak (al-Albani, Mukhtasar al-Shama’il, 6). Its beauty is not enough.
The long portrait attributed to Ali. Al-Tirmidhi reports it and classified it as hasan gharib, while noting a discontinuity in its chain of transmission (Tirmidhi 3638). Al-Albani graded it weak. The account from Ali that we cite above is another one, shorter (Tirmidhi 3637).
What we keep is enough: everything above comes from those who saw him ﷺ, and their accounts agree.
How this page connects to the others
- The character behind this face: His character.
- The rest of this part: His speech, his laughter, his tears.
- The seal and the accounts of Bahira: Bahira and his youth.
Sources for this page
- Hadiths: Bukhari 3541, 3542, 3544, 3546, 3547, 3548, 3549, 3551, 3552, 3556, 3558, 3561, 5894, 5897, 6102, 6281; Muslim 2329, 2330, 2331, 2339, 2344, 2345, 2346; Tirmidhi 1754, 3637, 3638.
- Al-Tirmidhi, al-Shama’il al-Muhammadiyya: no. 8, the portrait of Hind ibn Abi Hala.
- Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari, VI, 569.
- Ibn Kathir, al-Sira al-nabawiyya, II, 257, 261.
- Al-Salihi al-Shami, Subul al-huda wa-l-rashad, III, 244.
- Al-Albani, Mukhtasar al-Shama’il al-Muhammadiyya, no. 6.