# The seven ajwa dates hadith as hyperbole

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/pifqxkwyrwg/s/8/
- Date: 2018-04-15 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Magic: Myth and Reality in Islam by Mufti Abu Layth (43:38–46:15)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiFqxkWyrwg&t=2618s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/pifqxkwyrwg/

**Topics:** Individual hadith explained; Magic, the evil eye and superstition

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The hadith that ajwa dates protect from poison and magic is hyperbole praising dates; classical commentators did not take it literally either.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says that in his understanding the hadith of the seven dates was hyperbole emphasising the benefits of dates.

**Evidence, his words at 44:16:** “in my understanding this hadith was hyperbole it was it was just hyperbolic he was emphasizing the benefits of date of date” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiFqxkWyrwg&t=2656s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says most commentators did not take literally the hadith in Sahih Muslim that seven ajwa dates protect from poison and magic: Qadi Iyad and others said it may have been specific to Madinah, and al-Mazari [?] and al-Nawawi in their commentaries said they did not know its reason. He says in his understanding it was hyperbole emphasising the benefit of dates, like saying a phone is so good it will make you forget everything, and cites Ibn Khaldun [?] and similar scholars on the Prophet's medicine reflecting his environment. He compares the hadith that a house without dates is a starving house, noting that an Andalusian commentator said that in al-Andalus they would say a house without figs.

## Sources and names cited

- report: whoever eats such dates will not be harmed by poison or magic
- Sahih Muslim
- Qadi Iyad
- al-Mazari [?]
- al-Nawawi
- Ibn Khaldun [?]
- report: bayt la tamr fihi jiyaa ahluhu
- al-Andalus

## Transcript (machine tier, 43:38–46:15)

[42:58] and it works with several people so so these kind of things you can make people have a hatred this many ways it's not just I pick up a doll and stick needles in and get here wrap it round squander it or whatever throw it into the air and get a black goat and Stroke it three times and you know like this kind of this is our understanding of magic nothing like that has come from the Koran asana so I just wanted to highlight these things the hadith I did I think worth touching up on the surah what I did mention the seven dates that the Prophet said in a hadith which is in Sahih Muslim that mantra sabaha be service a Marathi Najwa

[43:37] most of the people who commented on this didn't did not accept this hadith in that understanding so even people like call the yard and all these people who come afterwards they said maybe the Prophet was speaking about something in Medina exclusively and in fact Imam Missouri in his commentary on Muslim before worried the Muslim gives a very good understanding and he says he says that maybe he says Allah who that was in the prophet's time over there because he says that I have not known and not understood he says that I do not know

[44:16] bestir maha shiva with Erlich fearless amanina he says I do not know that that kills people today in our day and age like this so look how were looking at hadith and in my understanding this hadith was hyperbole it was it was just hyperbolic he was emphasizing the benefits of date of date so if I was to say to you something like boy you really need to buy this phone it's so awesome it'll make you forget everything so when the Prophet and this is the kind of thing that even a whole dune and these and other similar scholars highlight about the medicine in

[44:56] the time of the Prophet they say when the Prophet was addressing these think this is what so when the Prophet is saying that these dates are so good that it would even kill magic as that's and it's like it's it's hyperbole it's like trying to say that it's so beneficial and you see that in another hadith intermedia the Prophet said Peyton or Darin Latimore ephyra Jian Alou that a house with no dates in it its people are just starving because the dates was such so cool and even though our we said in commenting upon that he said that this

[45:35] didn't mean dates that's just because the Prophet in his environment was dates he said nano villa I feel under loose we in al-andalus a Muslim Spain would say there are on Latino feeha the house which has no FIGS Junior on a low that is family or starving because that is our common kind of fruit like that so so just to clarify and once again the reason why this is so important to just some de is that because of the amount of abuse and exploitation that is conducted under this banner it is ruthless the

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment PiFqxkWyrwg/s/8. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/pifqxkwyrwg/s/8/

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