Hadith About Fly in The Drink
Question:
I wanted to know the authenticity of the Hadeeth mentioned below Volume 4, Book 54, Number 537: Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet said "If a house fly falls in the drink of anyone of you, he should dip it (in the drink), for one of its wings has a disease and the other has the cure for the disease."
Kindly help me in this regards.
Answer:
The hadith has been narrated from three companions, Abu Hurayra, Anas ibn Malik and Abu Sa’id al-Khidri.
In answering another question about the advantages of a particular type of date I wrote:
I wanted to know the authenticity of the Hadeeth mentioned below Volume 4, Book 54, Number 537: Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet said "If a house fly falls in the drink of anyone of you, he should dip it (in the drink), for one of its wings has a disease and the other has the cure for the disease."
Kindly help me in this regards.
Answer:
The hadith has been narrated from three companions, Abu Hurayra, Anas ibn Malik and Abu Sa’id al-Khidri.
In answering another question about the advantages of a particular type of date I wrote:
The Prophet (pbuh) was a human being and as any human being had views about the affairs of the world based on his personal knowledge and experience. We are bind to follow those directives of the Prophet (pbuh) that are about or relate to our religion. As for those sayings of the Prophet (pbuh) that are entirely limited to the affairs of this world he himself has advised us to the effect that we should not treat them as divinely approved sayings.
It is narrated that when the farmers listened to the advice of the Prophet (pbuh) about not artificially fertilizing the palm trees, the trees did not produce any dates the year after. When they brought this to the attention of the Prophet (pbuh) he said: "You know better about the affairs of your world". When Al-Nawawi comments on this, he puts it under the following title: باب وجوب امتثال ما قاله شرعا دون ما ذكره صلى الله عليه وسلم من معايش الدنيا على سيبل الرأي
"The chapter on obligation of following what he (pbuh) says related to Shar' (religion) and not what he (pbuh) says about the affairs of the world as a personal opinion."
I categorise the Hadith that you mentioned as one that is about the worldly affairs too and therefore do not invest on it as divinely guided information. The prophet (pbuh) was simply advising people about a hygiene issue, not as a prophet but as an elder of the community, based on his own experience and the information that was available to him at his time and at the place of his residence.
Anyone who would criticise the prophet (pbuh) on the basis of this hadith needs to be reminded that we do not consider our prophet (pbuh) or any prophets (pbut) to be divine (godly) beings. The prophets of God were human beings who were supported by the Almighty in delivering the message of Islam to their nations. They were immune in delivering this divine message and anything related to it, but not in other matters. (1)
May God be satisfied with the family of the Prophet (pbuh) and his pious companions.
-----------
Footnote:
1. There are some Muslim writers who try to defend the hadith by referring to articles as follows: The new buzz on antibiotics.
I do not rule out the possibility that what the prophet (pbuh) said could be based on a phenomenon that this article refers to. However I can also see that there is a huge difference between appreciating existence of antibiotics in the body of the fly (which most probably would require complicated medical processes to be extracted) and the understanding that dipping a fly in the drink will have antibiotic effect.
-----------
November 2013
Anyone who would criticise the prophet (pbuh) on the basis of this hadith needs to be reminded that we do not consider our prophet (pbuh) or any prophets (pbut) to be divine (godly) beings. The prophets of God were human beings who were supported by the Almighty in delivering the message of Islam to their nations. They were immune in delivering this divine message and anything related to it, but not in other matters. (1)
May God be satisfied with the family of the Prophet (pbuh) and his pious companions.
-----------
Footnote:
1. There are some Muslim writers who try to defend the hadith by referring to articles as follows: The new buzz on antibiotics.
I do not rule out the possibility that what the prophet (pbuh) said could be based on a phenomenon that this article refers to. However I can also see that there is a huge difference between appreciating existence of antibiotics in the body of the fly (which most probably would require complicated medical processes to be extracted) and the understanding that dipping a fly in the drink will have antibiotic effect.
-----------
November 2013
