101 Reasons Why We Left Islam – Chapter 3: Islam and Science – Reason 30
If you are one of the few who are Quranists only or reject the mainstream Hadiths, move to the next reasons. If you are one of the 90% of Muslims who believe in the Hadith, continue reading.
The Prophet made many claims about the medicinal properties of blackseed (black cumin), camel urine, honey, and dates that are narrated in the Hadiths Here are the key ones:
Black Cumin cure for all diseases:
Sahih Bukhari 5688 https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5688
- Narrated Abu Huraira: I heard Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) saying, “There is healing in black cumin for all diseases except death.”
Camel Urine cure for stomach upset:
Jami’at-Tirmidhi 2042: https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2042
- Anas narrated “Some people from Urainah arrived in Al-Madinah, and they were uncomfortable (with the climate). So the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w) sent them some camels from charity. He told them: “Drink from their milk and Urine”.
Honey as a treatment for Diarrhea:
Sahih Bukhari: 5716 https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5716
- Narrated Abu Sa`id: A man came to the prophet and said, ‘My brother has got loose motions. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, Let him drink honey.” The man again (came) and said, ‘I made him drink (honey) but that made him worse.’ The Prophet (ﷺ) said, ‘Allah has said the Truth, and the `Abdomen of your brother has told a lie.”
Dates as poison antidote:
Sahih Bukhari: 5779 https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5779
- Narrated Sa`d: I heard Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) saying, “Whoever takes seven ‘Ajwa dates in the morning will not be effected by magic or poison on that day.”
Rich Islamic governments, academic institutions, researchers, and scholars have tried everything to prove any of these things are remotely true yet failed miserably. So, they attempted to deflect by looking at anything that ‘may be beneficial’ to peg their findings.
If you look up the medical properties of Black Cumin, you may find it may help with blood pressure, it may help with asthma, it may increase fertility, among other things that it may have beneficial properties. What you read is ‘it may’ this and ‘it may’ that… despite much research done on it, it turns out Black Cummin is nothing special. And there is definitely no cure for all diseases! So, this claim is completely debunked.
When it comes to camel urine, Islamic scholars jumped for joy after one study in 2012 suggested that there are ‘components’ in camel urine that may be used to cure cancer.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874112005235
Well, that study has since been debunked as nonsense by what appears to be the same institution in 2023.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37698221
Even then, the Prophet never claimed it to be a cure for cancer or any diseases but a remedy for upset stomach when travelling. That has never been proven to be true, despite lots of research. What is more, drinking untreated camel urine is extremely dangerous, as shown by this report from the World Health Organisation:
Honey as a treatment for Diarrhea is an interesting. The Hadith itself shows it did not work on the individual asking for advice, prompting the Prophet to accuse the man’s stomach of being a liar! Yes, you heard it correctly. It is not that the man is a liar, his stomach is a liar! The research on this is mixed with some suggesting specific types of Diarrhea can be reduce (not cured) if honey is taken in moderation (5ml) BUT complemented with hydration.
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/jmf.2009.0075
This is one of many papers that said this. The emphasise on the importance of hydration, i.e. drinking water with the honey – something the Prophet did not include in his advice. Moreover, honey helped with the recovery. On its own, it is not a cure.
Finally, dates or even ‘Ajwa dates’ as being an antidote to all poisons is a joke. Muslims have gone to extremes to try to prove its benefits, including ‘may’ help regulate blood pressure and kidney functions, ‘may’ boost testosterone, ‘may’ reduce stress, ‘may’ improve digestion, ‘may’ improve eye health, …even as far as saying it ‘may’ prevent cancer! But nothing, absolutely nothing related to stopping the effect of poison – which they throw every possible test on it, including failing to neutralise the most basic of poisons – such as food poisoning! The best Muslims could come up with are Saudi researchers who suggested regular eating of Ajwa Dates can reduce the long-term effect of lead poisoning in rabbits.
https://platform.almanhal.com/Files/2/49484
To put this in context, lead poisoning requires years and years of build-up of lead in drinking water. To give you a comparison, fruits with high vitamin C have much more superior quality in combining with Lead to clear it from the system. So, broccoli, dark leafy greens, grapefruit, and sweet red pepper have high levels of vitamin C that clear lead faster. Also, all sorts of vegetables, nuts, seeds, wholegrains and dried fruits high in iron can also do the same, if not better than dates. So, what they are not telling you is that Ajwa Dates are nothing special in this case!
Academic sources for the superior qualities of broccoli in reducing effects of poisoning for comparison:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1155/2022/3509706
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12011-023-03898-4
You can see from this example how desperate Islamic academics are to prove their faith through research.
Issue 30.1: Islamic Scholars went to extreme lengths to prove that anything the Prophet has said is true. As you can see, there is nothing he said that was either special or innovative. Despite the Prophet having every opportunity to come up with groundbreaking medical advice, everything we have pointed to basic desert dweller knowledge of 7th-century Arabia. At best, he was guessing and relaying common knowledge that, at times, was not new or accurate!
Islamic Apologists:
Issue 30.1: There is no claim that the Prophet had any miracles or claim that he was a medical doctor. This is a very silly reason to leave Islam over trivial advice that may have been restricted to the knowledge of that time. There are two things to consider here. One is that the advice may have been the most useful at the time, or we may discover the truth in the future in these sayings. For example, at the time of the Prophet, there was not easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables, so dried dates would have been an excellent alternative to reduce the effect of lead poisoning. Either way, this should not be a reason to leave Islam.
>> Our Response: It is one thing to make general health advice that could help, such as taking honey for diarrhea but forgetting to emphasize the importance of water. Or eating seven dates every day or black cumin that may not have been harmful. However, the advice to drink untreated camel urine was dangerous. Either way, realising that the Prophet was not exceptional in his knowledge compared to that of an average 7th-century desert dweller is by itself a reason why people leave Islam.
Final Thoughts:
A byproduct of having advice given to you by a person you idolize is that it stops you looking for other solutions. It is counter scientific and source of significant cognitive bias. Who, in the Islamic worlds, is going to dare to show something works better than dates to stop or reduce poison effects – thus proving the Prophet to be wrong? And maybe more concerning is the level of Islamic deception that now has moved to academic research publications. Something we will discuss at length in the conclusion of this chapter where we examine the ‘dipping of a fly in a drink’ research. Finally, for all the medical expertise that Muslims attribute to the Prophet, it turns out that eating seven dates a day did not save him from dying from poison as we will see later in Reason #95.