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Benefits Of Honey In Quran And Hadith Vs Suitability For Individual
I understand Quran mentions ‘shifa’ in Honey. Some benefits are mentioned in akhbaar -e- ahaad (Sahih Bukhari) to the extent that even if a person has negative reaction should persist until positive result.
Q. Does mention of HONEY in quran gives honey status of absolute result no matter if it suits an individual or not?
Q2. If honey gives me stomach ache should I feel that my stomach, ‘is lying and that the Quran speaks the truth?’ and continue despite pain.
Q3. Does thinking HONEY is not suitable for me is sinful because Quran says there is benefit for all humans in HONEY.
Jazakallh
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Benefits Of Honey In Quran And Hadith Vs Suitability For Individual
updated 2 years, 5 months ago
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It is mentioned in Quran that:
وَأَوْحَى رَبُّكَ إِلَى النَّحْلِ أَنِ اتَّخِذِیْ مِنَ الْجِبَالِ بُيُوتًا وَّمِنَ الشَّجَرِ وَمِمَّا يَعْرِشُوْنَ. ثُمَّ كُلِیْ مِنْ كُلِّ الثَّمَرَاتِ فَاسْلُكِیْ سُبُلَ رَبِّكِ ذُلُلًا يَخْرُجُ مِنْ بُطُوْنِهَا شَرَابٌ مُّخْتَلِفٌ أَلْوَانُهُ فِيْهِ شِفَآءٌ لِّلنَّاسِ إِنَّ فِیْ ذَلِكَ لَآيَةً لِّقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُوْنَ.
[Do you not see that] your Lord sent His revelation to the honey bee that she should make her hives in mountains, trees and fences they build. “Then suck juice from fruits of all types and follow the trodden paths of your Lord.” From her belly comes out a fluid of different colours; there is cure in it for people. Surely, there is a great sign in this as well for those who reflect. (Quran 16:68-69)
(Excerpt from Quranic Exegesis: Javed Ahmed Ghamidi)
(Translated by Dr. Shehzad Saleem)
These verses are a reflection of signs of Allah and among those signs was the way honey is being produced which no doubt has high healing abilities. Neither is this a directive nor an absolute statement. A dominant trait of honey has been mentioned considering the way it is being produced by bees and its positive effects on human beings, it for sure is one of the signs of Allah. Therefore, it is not a religious injunction that would make one sinful if one avoids honey because it doesn’t suit him.
As far as ahdith are concerned, that’s a different matter. It is true that majority of Muslims do believe such ahadith depicting medicinal benefits of certains things as divine commandments as well. Ghamidi Sahab is of view (and so are some other scholars and researchers like ibn-e-khuldun) that in addition to being a Prophet, our Prophet had other roles in the society i.e. being an elder of the society who gets influenced by the medicine of his time and gives such medicinal advice to others in his capacity as an elder and not in his capacity as a Prophet. Therefore, Prophet’s role in religious capacity and his role as an elder of the society always need to be separated while studying Hadith Corpus. Therefore, all the ahadith describing medicinal benefits of different things have no religious bearing, as they were never given in a religious capacity to begin with.
One example to understand this is famous cross-pollination event in Medina in which it appeared to people as if Prophet (sws) prohibited that practice, and people misconstrued it as religion, but later on Prophet (sws) clarified that such worldly opinions of Prophet (sws) are not religion:
– It was narrated from Müsâ bin Talhah that his father said: “The Messenger of Allah and I passed by some people who were at the top of their date palms. He said: ‘What are these people doing?’ They said: ‘They are pollinating them, putting the male with the female so that it will be pollinated.’ The Messenger of Allah said: ‘I do not think that it is of any use.’ They were told about that, so they stopped doing it. The Messenger of Allah was told about that and he said: ‘If it benefits them, let them do it. I only expressed what I thought. Do not blame me for what I say based on my own thoughts, but if I narrate something to you from Allah, then follow it, for I will never tell lies about Allah, may He Glorified and Exalted is He.” (Sahih Muslim: 6126)
– – ( … ) It was narrated from Anas that the Prophet passed by some people who were pollinating (palm trees) and said: “If you do not do it, it may be better.” The trees produced bad dates, then he passed by them and said: “What is the matter with your palm trees?” They said: “You said such-and-such.” He said: “You know better about your worldly affairs.” (Sahih Muslim: 6128)
Following videos/links add further insight into this matter.
Please refer to the following link from 3:24 to 08:05
Please also watch:
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Jazakallah Khair – Thank you for detailed reply. We are much peaceful now.
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