THE COLOR OF MUHAMMAD
I’m going to give you two descriptions—one of Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ father, and then one of Muhammad ﷺ himself. The description of his father can be found in the writings of the famous 9th-century Arab scholar al-Jāḥiẓ. The description of Muhammad ﷺ comes from a ṣaḥīḥ/ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ hadith narrated by Anas ibn Mālik. Al-Jāḥiẓ describes the ten sons of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib as دُلْماً (dulman)—the plural of أَدْلَم (adlam)—a term indicating a markedly dark or very dark complexion. One of those ten sons was ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the father of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. So while al-Jāḥiẓ does not stop and say, “Muhammad’s father was black,” he places ʿAbd Allāh within a group of brothers whom he collectively describes as dulm. Now look at Muhammad ﷺ himself. Anas ibn Mālik describes him: أَسْمَرَ اللَّوْنِ asmara al-lawn “asmar in complexion.” That report appears in Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī, where al-Tirmidhī grades the narration ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ gharīb. Look at the attached color palette...