What is your response to those who suspend judgment on the authentication or application of some of the Prophetic medical hadiths on the grounds that modern medicine has not yet proven their facts?

The Shaykh : And so, this leads us to adopt this answer as a principle for responding to some of the doctors, and here specifically in the University of Jordan, who assert that some of the Prophetic hadiths, which relate to certain medical details that medicine has not yet proven, are such that we suspend judgment and do not say that this hadith is authentic, even if the hadith scholars have authenticated it, because medicine has not authenticated it. This means doubting two things: the first is doubting the independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) and efforts of the hadith scholars, which have been coordinated over days and years in preserving the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and distinguishing their authentic from their weak. Second, it is a criticism of what the Ummah has accepted, because the hadiths of al-Bukhari and Muslim, as is known to everyone, are the most authentic hadiths and the most authentic statements reported from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) after the Book of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). Therefore, the entire Ummah agreed that the hadiths of the two Sahihs, in which there was no disagreement among the early scholars, all indicate authenticity and certainty. It is not permissible to doubt any of them because some people live with a certain culture or mentality, like the example I mentioned earlier. For example, you have hadiths that doctors today do not believe in, except those who are truly believers. There are many hadiths, all revolving around Prophetic medicine. Among them is his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: The black seed, which they say in Syria is a beautiful expression, "it does not fill the eye," because of its smallness; the eye is not satisfied with looking at it. But whoever knows this noble, authentic Prophetic text, no doubt when he looks at it, his view of it differs from the view of ordinary people, and especially the disbelievers among them. This hadith, naturally, experimental medicine, as they call it, has not discovered the secret of this blessed seed, although they have discovered some of its benefits. As for it being a cure for every disease except death, that is what they have reached, and in my opinion, they may never reach it, because it remains a hidden, legislative ruling by which Allah tests His servants: will they believe or will they disbelve? Among these is, for example, the well-known hadith of the fly . They have not found this, in their claim, and especially the greatest secret, which they cannot reveal except through many, very many experiments, which is to observe the fly, as it came in some authentic narrations that it lands on the wing that contains the disease. And I think that even if experimental tests were conducted, and it lands on the vessel, the miracle might be that flies are of two types: some have the disease in the right wing, and some in the left wing, so the result differs, and it cannot be reached by experiment. So what should the Muslim do in that case but stand and say, as the Lord of the Worlds said: . Some doctors, some professors, say that these hadiths are problematic, so we suspend judgment on them, meaning we do not believe them and we do not deny them. And you see what the reality of this position is? If we wanted to explain it, it is that they treat the hadith of their Prophet as they treat the Isra'iliyyat, because the Isra'iliyyat are those about which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered us not to believe them and not to deny them, because if we believed them, we would have believed in what they fabricated, and if we denied them, we might deny something from the established remnants of their laws. So we do not believe them and we do not deny them. This is the Muslim's position regarding the Isra'iliyyat. As for the Muslim's position regarding the hadiths reported from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) with authentic chains, it is not permissible except to be a believer in Allah and in what came from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). And this is faith, because if we waited for a legal reality to be proven by medical experiment before we believe, then we have not believed in the Shari'ah in this case. What have we believed in? Medicine. In that case, this contradicts complete faith, as Allah the Exalted said in the beginning of Surat al-Baqarah: For whom? For whom? The first condition for true believers is their belief in the unseen. And what is the unseen? Everything that is hidden from your mind is unseen. So everything that came from your Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) must be accepted and believed in, whether it is proven by medicine or science or not. Therefore, those who assert today and say, "We suspend judgment on such hadiths and say nothing about them," are only casting doubt in the hearts of Muslims, in the hearts of students who will soon become guides for the Ummah. And he who lacks something cannot give it. If these people do not have faith, they are not able to plant this faith in the hearts of people, because they themselves are not believers in much of what came from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So this is like what Allah the Exalted said: . So this is a real example. How do we say that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) does not exercise independent legal reasoning (ijtihad)? Here he exercised it, but it was not confirmed . And many of the rulings issued by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) suggest to us, from his words (peace and blessings be upon him), not from the words of the Lord of the Worlds, that they were his independent legal reasoning (ijtihad). Recently, on an occasion, we mentioned that a noble woman from the Companions, one of the noble women, named Fatimah bint Qays, was abandoned by her husband, who had divorced her twice, then sent her the third divorce. And this divorcing husband who was traveling had an agent in Medina. So he came to her and informed her of her husband's third divorce, and asked her to leave her husband's house, because she had become divorced from him with a major final divorce. She did not know that a woman divorced three times has no financial maintenance or housing. So she dressed and went to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and told him her story, that her husband had divorced her a third time, and sent his agent, who came to me and asked for housing. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And here is the point . And she was also a noble woman, from the emigrants, and the emigrants used to visit her house. So he said to her: , then he said: . Here, pay attention: when he said to her "go," this was his independent legal reasoning (ijtihad), because after this saying "go," he said: to the end of the hadith. So at one time, something is issued from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and then something else is issued from him. So this is the greatest proof that he (peace and blessings be upon him) exercises independent legal reasoning (ijtihad). But the difference, as we said earlier, and I repeat this in your ears so that you arrive at the certain truth, is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is like nothing among humans. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is like nothing among humans. So if he exercises independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) and errs, it is not confirmed. He is alerted by what? By the way of revelation. In the hadith of the Dajjal, for example, you will find that he says, "He is in such a place," then he says, "No, in such a place," then he says, "Three changes." All this and that and many, very many things compel us to say that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) exercises independent legal reasoning (ijtihad), but his independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) is not like the independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) of the scholars, where one of them dies and is not rewarded for much of his independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) except for one, because he erred. As for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), he is protected from error, so we return from the idea that he is confirmed in an error.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good, O our professor.

Another questioner : But is it like a Sunnah?

The Shaykh : What do you mean by like a Sunnah?

Another questioner : Like a Sunnah from the Sunnahs of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)?

The Shaykh : The matter is fine, and we have bled repeatedly, and praise be to Allah.