# Did the Prophet tell people to drink camel urine as medicine?

*Mohammed Hijab's camel-urine clip: the report is unreliable and may be a rebuke*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/--pntsar8ck/s/28/
- Date: 2021-02-16 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #202| Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (1:26:20–1:32:50)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--PntsaR8ck&t=5180s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/--pntsar8ck/

**Topics:** Text criticism, reason and the Quran; Medical questions; Views on contemporary scholars

**Question as asked:** Mo Hijab is trapped as a Salafi but knows it's not right.

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says camel urine is not medicine and the Prophet never really told anyone to drink it; the report is weak in its chain and, if taken at all, reads as a rebuke.

## Longer summary

Reading a chat remark that Mohammed Hijab is 'trapped as a Salafi but knows it's not right', Mufti Abu Layth says he will cover a recent clip of Hijab on camel urine in detail next week, but shows it now: Hijab says one need not drink it but warns against criticising the hadith, which may hold a hidden wisdom. Mufti says camel urine is not medicine and that the Prophet never really instructed people to drink it; the report is transmitted from Anas in Bukhari, whose other narration of it from the same narrator mentions milk but not urine, and its chain is problematic. He suggests that those who took it may have understood it as a rebuke, almost a curse, to a malicious group who had come to Madinah, and recounts the Arab custom of three days' hospitality and how that group abused it, torturing an old couple who hosted them, killing their livestock, and were punished in kind under tribal law. He notes that Hijab has moved a step away by saying one need not drink it and that it was a one-off medication.

## Sources and names cited

- Mohammed Hijab
- report: the prophet told the sick to drink camel urine
- report: the people of uraynah had their hands and feet cut off and their eyes branded
- Anas ibn Malik
- Sahih al-Bukhari
- Salafi

## Transcript (machine tier, 1:26:20–1:32:50)

[1:25:40] naturally i i said that let's do this [Laughter] it'll be uh great so i did message him saying i mean i don't have his details so i this is all via a middle intermediary person so i message back saying can you ask him yeah let's do this so we were meant to do this maybe last week but then he messaged oh he's not feeling well and you know he's gonna have to reschedule and and then so i said fine uh and then i've not heard anything since

[1:26:19] so i don't know maybe he has changed his mind uh right okay mo hijab trapped as a salafi but knows it's not right yeah that you know there is uh part of this is i was going to you know under the microscope because i'm going to be showing a lot of um there was a clip there was a clip also of uh muhammad hijab but i won't be going

[1:26:58] through that today but what i'll do is uh i'll cover that next week but it's where he's doing a lecture sorry he's got a clip on youtube recent one about camel urine and how although you don't need to drink it but which i i guess is a step in the right direction away from urine [Laughter] any step away from urine is usually a good step but then he's saying um you know don't you don't dare criticize it the

[1:27:37] hadith like you know this may have some blessed wisdom in it that you are unaware of which really is quite nonsensical let me see if i can find that here so so this is the clip camel urine as medicine now this in all honesty is uh camel urine is not medicine and neither did the prophet ever instruct people in a real sense ever

[1:28:17] to drink camel urine now i will cover this in more detail next week but what i'll do is i'll do a hadith analysis so the hadith is transmitted by anasem bukhari and it's actually this bihari brings both narrations and this and these two of these one does not even mention that and i have highlighted that this hadith is not reliable secondly if those people who took it as an understanding they may have understood that the prophet they may have interpreted this if

[1:28:56] first of all the chain is problematic and i'll highlight that next week and how this is actually because even the other one that bihari brings from the same narrator does not even mention this part it mentions milk but doesn't mention that and how if you those people who think well maybe it's a point of consideration that this was taken as said as a um to rebuke these people not as it was not instructive it was almost like cursing them that said in a sense like you know why

[1:29:34] don't you go drink urine you know in that sense because these were the people you see you have to remember that as these people that came the prophets saw malice in them and they were not from medina and they come and they take you see the arabs had a custom that what they called kera that if somebody from out of town came to you your property as a guest you had to give them three days of um of this biafra they called it terra of hospitality and the first day

[1:30:14] had to be uh you had to kind of go be over and beyond but the other two days you can just be casual so the first day because they're going to be most tired and everything from their journey so you have to as a tribal law of hospitality go over and beyond in serving them but the next two days you can just be casual with them and they have up to three days of stay with you so these were part of the tribal laws the unwritten laws that um the the arabs had and the prophets al-salam uh partook in this and many people they all and there's a hadith

[1:30:52] explaining it as well so they take up accommodation hospitality with this old couple and the prophet saw and they came to the prophet as well kind of oh moaning and complaining and the prophet saw that there was that this this was a rowdy bunch and he saw malice with them so some people may have transmitted this if as interpreted this as the prophet rebuking them uh but this part this hadith is not really this part is not reliable anyway but still if you were to take it maybe in this sense

[1:31:31] that the prophet was um kind of like curse not cursing them but kind of rebuking them because what they go on to do is hurried beyond measure that old couple what they do is not only they do they slaughter their livestock they then cut off the hands and feet of this old couple torture them and blind them with heated rods that's what they do i mean to an old couple that serve them hospitality and this is why they are then caught and they are served the same punishment under tribal law

[1:32:11] so this and these are the people that they attribute this hadith to that the prophet said to them why don't you drink camel's urine this is not a medicine that's absurd but i will go through the chain in um in next week's session inshallah but it was interesting to see that okay well what muhammad hijab has done is he's moved a step away by trying to say well you know okay you don't need to do this but this was a one-off medication but you see this

[1:32:49] is the problem where muhammad hijab is kind of stuck because muhammad hijab can't really at this stage turn his back on the selfies because you see i don't think he feels confident enough to do it because if he turned his back on the selfies who would his audience be you have to remember this who would he be preaching to and selfies are a huge audience there are a lucrative audience they are a you know

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment --PntsaR8ck/s/28. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/--pntsar8ck/s/28/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.