# What does the hadith 'Satan flows through the son of Adam like blood' mean?

*Sources of knowledge, the hadith 'Satan flows like blood' in its context with Safiyya, and the ruqya industry*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/lexzvtf9yga/s/6/
- Date: 2018-04-15 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Jinn: Myth and Reality in Islam by Mufti Abu Layth (22:09–24:48)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeXzvtf9YGA&t=1329s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/lexzvtf9yga/

**Topics:** Jinn possession; Individual hadith explained; Jinn, angels and the devil

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** In context it is about suspicion: the Prophet said it after explaining to some men that the woman with him was his wife Safiyya, so it refers to the insinuations that pass through human minds, not to possession. Mufti Abu Layth adds that the exorcism trade is a large industry whose practitioners may nonetheless be sincere.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth holds that the hadith that Satan flows through the son of Adam like blood, read in its context with Safiyya, concerns human suspicion and insinuation, since the men addressed were not possessed, and that it does not support possession.

**Evidence, his words at 23:38:** “they were just the facts suspicion that's what the Prophet was speaking about that look I'm not saying you were being suspicious but it is human to sometimes have insinuations” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeXzvtf9YGA&t=1418s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says our understanding comes from textual, rational, experiential or cultural sources, and that a hadith much used by believers in possession carries its own answer when read in full. The report that Shaytan flows through the son of Adam like blood, which Shaykh Akram had just read, has a context: the Prophet was walking with his wife Safiyya, passed a group of men, then came back to tell them that this was his wife; when they protested that he owed them no explanation, he said that Satan flows through the son of Adam like blood. The men were not possessed or acting unstably; the Prophet was speaking about suspicion, saying that insinuations and negative thoughts about others are human. He then turns to experience, noting first that the examples heard earlier show how easily people are conned into a culture that is now a multi-million-pound industry, though he does not claim everyone in it is devious; many of these practitioners sincerely believe in what they do.

## Sources and names cited

- report: satan flows through the son of adam like blood
- Safiyya
- Shaytan
- waswasa (whispering)
- ruqya (reading Quran over the afflicted)
- Shaykh Akram Nadwi

## Transcript (machine tier, 22:09–24:48)

[21:42] happen and the fact the second point that look people had to explain phenomenon that occurred to them in their environment and they use the best understanding they could and they saw people acting weird they couldn't explain it maybe it is the jinn maybe it is so so they accepted it but whatever as time progresses and we get a greater understanding of what's going on people miss you several evidences and I'd highlighted before that our understanding comes to us either through what is textual rational experiential or

[22:20] cultural sources this is where we derive our knowledge from now what's interesting is there is a hadith that is used a lot by people and this in itself if we just sometimes just pause with hadith or evidences when they're being used by people and just look at the bigger picture it has the answer in it so we just heard a hadith share her crime I just read a hadith which is used by many such people the initiate on a jury minute Minami Adam majored at them the shade a Shaitaan he flows through

[22:59] the blood off of the son of Adam through through people this is how he now this hadith it has a content the actual hadith contains the context that the Prophet is walking with his wife and there's a group of people standing there and as they walk past they carry on and the Prophet stops and he comes back and he says in how Sophia but that's my wife Sofia by the way with me and they say subhana Kalodner subhanAllah you had a soul a lot that you don't need to say anything as though you don't need to justify to us you know your rasulallah

[23:38] this is in the context of the hadith this society this is in the hadith they say Subhan Allah ya Rasulullah you know you you you are who you are and he says in the shaitaan and Yeji demon have been Adam measured at them that Shaitaan that the insinuations of the Shaitaan are with each and all these people weren't possessed this we were like acting all unstable and they were all over the place and they weren't behaving any weird symptom and displaying any weird symptoms they were just the facts suspicion that's what the Prophet was speaking about that look I'm not saying you were being suspicious but it is

[24:18] human to sometimes have insinuations have negative about people that's human so just keeping that in mind and I want us to take a look at the experiential and then the psychological right just speaking before we get into that you just heard some examples about people being so easily conned into a culture this is a massive this is a multi-million pound industry that said I'm not saying that everybody in it is necessarily devious

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment LeXzvtf9YGA/s/6. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/lexzvtf9yga/s/6/

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