How to reconcile the hadith (There is no contagion) with the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibition of entering a land where the plague is present?

The questioner : The Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibition of entering a land where the plague is present

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : And how do we reconcile this prohibition with his hadith (peace and blessings be upon him) ?

The Shaykh : What do you understand by the meaning of "no contagion"?

The questioner : "No contagion" means that a healthy man or person is not infected by a sick person; this is not...

The Shaykh : Yes, this type of contagion is denied; it does not exist?

The questioner : This is how we understood it from the hadith.

The Shaykh : Your question is this: I am turning it back on you. If there is no contagion, why did the Messenger say ? Since there is contagion, why did he say that? That is why I am asking you.

The Shaykh : The audience : They laugh.

The questioner : It is understood from this hadith that there is contagion.

The Shaykh : There is indeed contagion; it exists and cannot be denied. You may even see it with your own eyes. This does not require faith in the unseen; you see it with your own eyes. Place a rotten egg among healthy eggs, and after a few days, the rot spreads to the healthy ones. Place a sugared onion among fresh onions, and after a few days, they spoil, right or wrong? This contagion is the same. Take another type of contagion: place a righteous young man among wicked young men, and after a while, he becomes like them in their talk. This is contagion. Contagion has multiple forms and patterns. The contagion denied by the Messenger (peace be upon him) is not the same as what comes to the minds of some people. The full hadith alerts the one who reflects on the context of the hadith. Do you remember that when the Messenger (peace be upon him) said , we have not taken the first alert here, which is that when the Bedouin said, "We see with our eyes," just as I mentioned earlier about the eggs and onions, this Bedouin is saying, "We see the scabby camel entering among the healthy, beautiful camels whose wool is like silk," and so on. And then the camels become scabby. How can you say ? It is as if the Bedouin's inner self is saying, "O Messenger of Allah, you are informing us of something that contradicts what we see with our eyes." He did not say to the Messenger, "You are wrong." He affirmed it. And here remains the first alert: they did not say, "You are wrong, you are mistaken, there is no contagion." Rather, he said to him . So if we combine the Messenger's answer with the Bedouin's statement of what he sees with his own eyes, we arrive at the result that there are two types of contagion: an affirmed contagion and a denied contagion. The affirmed contagion is by the will of Allah, as evidenced by His saying . The denied contagion is most likely what is known today among doctors, and even some Muslims have overlooked his saying (peace be upon him) . Therefore, they, along with the naturalists and disbelievers, misunderstand and take very precise and strict precautions so as not to be infected by contagion. You see, for example, if a patient enters their presence, he goes to wash his hands with Savlon, fearing what? Contagion. Then he washes with soap, and so on. They do not realize that the contagion that passes to the healthy is by the decree and will of Allah the Exalted. So the denied contagion is the one that the people of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance believed in, meaning they do not realize that this scabby camel, when it mixed with the healthy camels, did not do so by its nature, but by divine will. Therefore, there is no contradiction between this hadith and the hadith of the plague, just as there is no contradiction between this hadith and his saying (peace be upon him) to that leper who had the disease of leprosy in his hand. He came to pledge allegiance to him (peace and blessings be upon him), and he said to him . So this is also an affirmation of contagion. I think I have clarified to you what the meaning of contagion is?

The questioner : May Allah reward you.

The Shaykh : And may He bless you.