# Why is quoting science to defend hadith like camel urine risky?

*Why Mohammed Hijab is stuck, and the risk of proving absurdities with science*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/--pntsar8ck/s/29/
- Date: 2021-02-16 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #202| Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (1:32:50–1:38:37)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--PntsaR8ck&t=5570s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/--pntsar8ck/

**Topics:** Views on contemporary scholars; Quran and science; Dawah and debate culture

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says Hijab cannot yet leave his Salafi audience, and that using science to prove absurd claims usually backfires, as with camel-urine research and earlier polemics.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says that when you quote scientific material to prove absurdities, it will more often than not come back and sting you.

**Evidence, his words at 1:34:07:** “you see when you quote scientific stuff to prove absurdities it will more often than not come back and sting you and bite you in the rear end” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--PntsaR8ck&t=5647s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says Mohammed Hijab is stuck: he does not think Hijab feels confident enough to turn his back on the Salafis, a huge and lucrative audience from whose background he comes, while his turn to philosophy and science sits badly with a movement that hates philosophy. He says that quoting scientific findings to prove absurdities will more often than not come back to sting you, and that Hijab's claim that camel urine contains an ingredient used in medicine rests on Saudi-funded theses rather than accepted medical research, which a person versed in medical journals could demolish, damaging the image of the Prophet being presented. He says Hamza Tzortzis [?] used to do the same and was often shown to have made mistakes, calling his debate with Lawrence Krauss a poor attempt and saying such polemicists do not understand quantum research. He ends by agreeing to a chat request to invite Dr Jeffrey Lang on MindTrap if he is interested.

## Sources and names cited

- Mohammed Hijab
- Salafi
- Hamza Tzortzis [?]
- Lawrence Krauss
- Dr Jeffrey Lang

## Transcript (machine tier, 1:32:50–1:38:37)

[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

[1:33:27] and he comes from that background anyway so but since he's started to become a bit more academic or a bit more let's say he's trying to learn more and then adopt philosophy now the selfie is hate philosophy so he's kind of found himself in a real weird kind of pickle by trying to say well quote a lot of philosophy and the selafia are people who hate that the other thing is he's trying to quote a lot of um in like appear very intellectual by quoting science and things like this now the problem with this

[1:34:07] is you see when you quote scientific stuff to prove absurdities it will more often than not come back and sting you and bite you in the rear end so even on this he quotes something very you know in a fleeting manner saying that did you know camel urine contains this particular ingredient which is used in certain medications see now the problem here is when you do stuff like that what's gonna happen is this because i know for a fact that look muhammad hijab is not going to have a

[1:34:46] plethora of research in in in the medical world and that's not he's not there's no way i mean he's let alone expertise he's not involved with the medical world and he's not involved in medical research and he's not going to be from that field so he's saying something of that field that he's just come across and because saudi what the saudis have done is because the these you know these um camel urine drinking bedouins are so obsessed with the camel urine that they've

[1:35:26] actually injected a bit of money into the universities to offer free research to people like do a phd on proving the benefits of camel urine so people have kind of done some theses because obviously they're gonna but they they this kind of research does not make it medically accepted so is it in a renowned medical journal or is it just a phd or a master's thesis that somebody in the university of king saud has done in you know in riyadh or something or you know malik ibn abdul aziz or whatever is in these universities in

[1:36:05] saudi arabia that doesn't mean anything you see so what these people are doing is quoting something medical now all it's going to take is some person who does know they are clued up with webmd and other kind of medical journals and that's their forte that they are going to bring this up smash it smithereens and thereby destroy the perception of the profit that you're presenting see and that's the problem and this has happened on so many occasions you know uh this has happened with it can you know

[1:36:43] this is what muhammad hijab or aira used to do this you know now i think hamza tortoise has stopped doing this but he used to do this a lot quote you know like this is the medical thing for it but unless you are actively studying medical research it's really difficult going out on a limb and trying to prove a controversial point through it because what's going to happen is it somebody's just going to come back and smash you with it and that's what happened with many of his things you know people came back saying oh well you actually cocked up here and you cocked up the quoting this and you cocked up here quoting this

[1:37:20] embryological fact and you you messed up here quoting this and um and this is why you know even i know muslims don't really see it but really his debate with the lawrence krauss was uh you know i mean it's just because it was done in a muslim thing and the muslim kept audience kept you know cheering for hamza thoughtsis otherwise that debate was a poor attempt in all honesty you know you can't people like professor lawrence krauss and these people are in another league when it comes to quantum research and things like these muslim

[1:37:59] kind of polemicists don't even understand that stuff you know let alone try and take it down you it's it's a different arena man so yeah cool let's move on people could you get dr jeffrey lang on mind trap sure if he's happy to come what i say to people is if you know anybody that you think uh may be great to get onto um mind trap if you're in touch with them always ask them my two key validating factors are they must be interesting

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment --PntsaR8ck/s/29. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/--pntsar8ck/s/29/

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