It is narrated in the books of Imams Al-Bukhari and Muslim that Anas Ibn Malik said:
"Some people of (the tribes of) 'Ukl and 'Uraynah came to Al-Madeenah and its climate did not suit them. So the Prophet ordered them to go to the herd of camels reserved for charity, and to drink their milk and urine (as a medicine). So they went as directed. After they became healthy, they killed the shepherds of the Prophet's camels and drove away all the camels, thus becoming aggressors against Allah All-Mighty and His Messenger . The Prophet, sallallaahu alayhi wa sallm, sent (men) in their pursuit and they were captured. The Prophet then ordered that their hands and feet to be cut off (and it was done), and their eyes were branded with heated pieces of iron. They were then kept in the sun until they died."
These people were complaining from dropsy, as per the narration from Imam Muslim who narrated the same narration above with the following addition: “…The Bedouins said: We have not found Al-Madeenah suitable for us and our stomachs swelled, our organs became weak..." until the end of the narration.
Dropsy is a physical disease that occurs when a harmful cold substance penetrates the external organs of the body and also the body organs other than those that are used in digestion, causing them to swell. There are three types of dropsy: in body tissue (fleshy), which is the most serious of the three, in a body cavity (ascites), and in an organ (drum). The remedy required for this disease includes mild laxatives and diuretic medicines that help rid the body of fluids. These diuretic qualities exist in the milk and urine of camels and that is why the Prophet ordered them to drink them. Camel milk is a mild laxative, diuretic, cleanses and opens that which is closed and removes the obstructions and soothes the body. This is especially the case when the camels graze on beneficial herbs, such as wormwood, lavender, chamomile, daisy and lemongrass. These herbs help against dropsy.
Dropsy is usually symptomatic of an ailment in the liver, especially due to congestion in the liver. The milk of the Arabian camels helps in this
case, because of its many benefits as mentioned and which help open the clogged passages and the obstructions. Ar-Razi said: "The she-camel's milk soothes the liver and the effects of a spoiled constitution." Al-Israeeli also said: "The she-camel's milk is the softest, least concentrated and lightest milk. It is the best choice for moving the bowels, as a laxative and for opening the clogged passages and obstructions. What makes this evident is the fact that this type of milk is mildly salty, as a result of the animal's instinctively hot nature. Therefore, the she-camel's milk is the best remedy for the liver as it soothes it, opens its pores and veins and softens the hardness of fresh food. Fresh, warm camel's milk is beneficial against dropsy, especially when taken with fresh, warm camel urine, thus making the combination more salty and adding strength to its effectiveness in dissolving harmful fluids and as a laxative. If the [combination of milk and urine] did not purge the stomach, then one should take a stronger laxative.” The author of Al-Qanoon also commented: "Do not listen to those who claim that milk does not provide cure from dropsy. Rather, know that camel's milk is an effective cure, because it cleanses gently and easily, due to its other qualities. This type of milk is so beneficial that if a person substituted water and food with camel's milk, he would be cured [from dropsy and other ailments]. Some people tried this remedy and were soon cured. We should state that the best camel urine is that of the camels of Bedouin people."
The story that was mentioned in the narration above has several areas of interest:
It encourages the use of medicines and cures.
It indicates the purity of the milk of the animals that Muslims are allowed to eat.
Using what Allah has prohibited in medicine is disallowed.
The people mentioned in the narration were not commanded to rinse their mouths or their clothes for the prayer, although they were new Muslims.
The Prophet cannot delay the necessary details of a religious command when such elaboration is necessary.
It emphasizes the fact that the aggressor is punished by the same method he transgressed. The people mentioned in the narration killed the shepherd and branded his eyes, as in another report of this narration by Imam Muslim .
It mentioned that the entire group was killed for killing one person.
It indicates that whereas the aggressor deserves to be punished for multiple crimes, one punishable according to the law of equality and the other for an act of aggression, then both laws are applied. The Prophet ordered that the hands and feet of the aggressors be cut off, as a punishment from Allah for their audacious raid and aggression. They were also killed because they had killed the shepherd.
It indicates that when armed aggressors steal money and also commit murder, their hands and feet are cut off, and they are then executed.
It indicates that the punishment for multiple crimes is multiplied, because the people who were mentioned in the story reverted from Islam, killed a human being, disfigured the dead shepherd, stole other people's property and announced their armed aggression. Also, the entire armed band mentioned in the story were executed, not only those who actually committed the murder, as the Prophet did not consider this fact, nor did he ask about who actually committed the murder.
Assassination warrants capital punishment and cannot be pardoned [by the relatives of the deceased] or compensated, according to the scholars of Al-Madeenah, Imam Ahmad and Ibn Taymiyyah .
“And your Lord inspired to the bee, "Take for yourself among the mountains, houses, and among the trees and [in] that which they construct. Then eat from all the fruits and follow the ways of your Lord laid down [for you]." There emerges from their bellies a drink, varying in colors, in which there is healing for people. Indeed in that is a sign for a people who give thought.” [Quran16:68-69]
With what glory bees buzz!
Its medicinal uses predate the Prophet Muhammad . But honey's history is all the more golden-rich for Islam.
The Surah of Muhammad mentions "rivers of clarified honey" [Quran 47:15] as a prime attraction of the blessed abode of the Hereafter, reserved for the God-fearing. And the Saheehs of both Muslim and Al-Bukhari, tell us the Prophet who prized only pure things—especially in food—so loved honey that a special supply of it enticed him to the particular company of one of his women to the jealousy of two others, for whose sake he foreswore it. (The Quran famously recounts the fallout from this in the Surah of at-Tahreem.)
Yet as the verse that opens this writing tells us, we should study the virtues of honey—both its healing properties and miraculous production. For in its sticky sweetness adheres a godly gift, indeed.
Beginning with the bees themselves, Umar Al-Ashqar, who writes on science and the Quran, in his book Belief in Allah in Light of the Quran and Sunnah, hails the hardy nature of these special bugs with a veritable catalogue raisonné of their exceptional qualities and activities. The worker bees fly forth collecting nectar from flowers and water from their surroundings, brushing pollen into containers on their posterior legs. As they buzz from place to place, they pollinate countless plants along the way. Humanity would enter a vegetation and subsequent food-chain crisis absent the incredible industriousness of bees.
Allah created the bees, moreover, with two stomachs —one for nourishment and another sack in which the nectar is stored and partially digested down into simple sugars.
Once their nectar pouch is full, the bees return to deposit its contents in their hive. There other bees fan it with their wings to condense the sugars. The honey is then scaled in hexagonal wax-comb cells. All the while, the bees carry out their specified individual tasks in buzzing harmony, contributing to the prosperity of their communities. SubhanAllah! What a sign of how singularly great and sublime He is!
A treatment for all things
More than 14 centuries ago, Almighty Allah sanctified human intuition regarding the healing power of honey. But only recently has our scientific community begun to heed. Current scholarship on bees is now proving a long tradition of honey's lay remedies for skin and cold care. In addition, traditional folks have long used apitherapy (bee sting therapy) to heel everything from arthritis to tumorous swellings. (Today, there is no more effective treatment in the world than bee venom therapy for the relief of what up till now has been chronic, excruciating post-shingles pain.) Let's take a look at the therapeutic effects of those bees that buzz by from bud to blossom.
For generations, grandmothers everywhere spread thin layers of honey on burned, ulcerated, wounded, and fungal-infected skin. Now, N.S. Al-Waili, in a 2004 study, and Lusby, two years before, tell us that honey's high sugar content, limited water, low ph, and phytochemical factors work to safely fight off dangerous bacteria and lesion infections in a shorter period of time, and without the adverse effects of pain or tissue damage, than do costly pharmaceutical company creations. The Food and Drug Administration finally approved the first honey-based wound application in 2006.
The whole medical world has been abuzz with the placebo effect of the lucrative cold medicine industry. That is, the drugs contained in the cough medicines, for children and adults, that we buy in stores or get from pharmacies for real dollars have virtually no medicinal affect on coughs at all. In 2005 in fact, researches (P.C.L. Lee and his colleagues) proved that there is a significant decrease in coughing in patients given fake vitamin treatment as opposed to no treatment at all. In other words, feeling better was pretty much in the head.
Many studies on cough medicines, writes R. Dobson in the British Medical Journal, have since found that most of their benefits come simply from increased salivation and the pleasing effects of taste. With the costly prices of cough medicines and their potential to cause harm or be abused, researchers began to look for alternatives for cold and cough relief. I.M. Paul and his associates confirmed in a 2007 study published in Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine what your sitto and jiddo already knew: Honey gives at least comparable relief to over the counter cough medicines, and actually helps you in other ways. Families whose children had upper respiratory infections that caused the little ones to cough, keeping them and their parents up at night, got significantly more sleep and cough relief with buck-wheat honey than no treatment, and at least the same relief as when they gave their children a special medication. While you still should refrain from giving infants under one year old honey due to the risks of botulism (and you do not want to go overboard and promote tooth decay with too much nighttime honey) a spoonful of honey is far more frugal and just as efficacious as delving into your pockets for another bottle of cough syrup.
What's in a Divine Sign?
When we read the Quran, we often fail to understand the meaning and wisdom of Allah's revelation. But we ought to be reflecting on the signs Allah has given us in its verses that speak to our own wellbeing and recovering our health when we fall ill. Scientific research in the dominant culture of the day lags behind in recognizing that many verses of the Quran (and hadeeths of the Prophet ) point to cures, and therefore ought to be empirically investigated. Yet that does not mean that we—who bear the gift of the Quran—should deprive ourselves of following its leads to bodily balance, presence, and whole health.
In considering the buzzing honey-bees, we should not merely marvel at the incredible perfection with which they were created as they zoom by in nature doing purposeful tasks. We ought to study them— and all the proofs in nature—in order to retrieve their lessons and benefits—as well as contemplate the reasons for which Allah created us as human beings, to worship Him and thank Him alone.
Al-Hamdulillah for the boundless blessing of Islam.
