Quora Answer: Why did Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) Ask Muslims to Drink Camel Urine?

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Why did Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) ask Muslims to drink camel urine as one hadits says?  How many Muslim brothers and sisters drink camel urine following his advice?” 

There are a few assumptions that have to be addressed here. 

Firstly, a hadits is a snapshot of a moment.  In books such as Swahih al-Bukhari and others, the narration is given, but no context. This is because these books were written for scholars as a resource.  Books that explain the sharh, the context, are found elsewhere.  For example, Adab al-Mufrad, also by Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Isma’il al-Bukhari (r.a.), is one of these books of sharh.  A hadits is not applicable to a lay Muslim directly.  It is neither a hukm, ruling; nor a fatwa, legal opinion.  That is the process of ifta’, of deriving jurisprudential positions based on the Qur’an, and that ahadits, and other tools of jurisprudence. 

Secondly, ahadits are not universally sacralised.  Within Sunni Islam, for example, the madzahib, schools of jurisprudence, fall into two main legal traditions: the schools of ra’yy, reason; and the schools of ahadits, narrations.  Generally, the Hanafi and Maliki madzhab are schools of ra’yy, whereas the Shafi’i and Hanbali are schools of ahadits.  However, this is not straightforward.  The Deobandi sub-school of the Hanafi madzhab has evolved, and they are nominally Hanafi by fiqh methodology but ahl al-ahadits, people of narrations, in approach.  Schools and sub-schools evolve, and sometimes birth new ones. 

In light of that background, we note that not every Sunni Muslim accepts a hadits simply because it is from Swahih al-Bukhari, or even if it is muttafaq ‘alayh, meaning that it is found in the same matn, text; sanad, chain of transmitters; and silsilah, the chain of authorities in Swahih Muslim as well.  There are several considerations. 

Speaking solely on this hadits, Imam Abu Manswur Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Maturidi (r.a.), the Hanafi mujtahid, wrote that there are several inconsistencies where we may reject this hadits on the basis of reason without the need to examine the chain.  One of this is the consumption of urine, which is a form of najasah, impurity.  This contradicts the Qur’an.  If merely coming into contact requires ablution, what more it actually encourages imbibing it? 

Secondly, we understand, from science, that this is not healthy.  Based on the same principles as laid out in Imam al-Maturidi’s (r.a.) Kitab at-Tawhid, we reject this narration because it contradicts established facts. 

What this shows is that there is always a multitude of opinions pertaining to every aspect of the religion, including individual ahadits.  The scholars certainly did not agree on everything across and even within schools.  This is the ikhtilaf, differences of opinion, within the religion.  Personally, I do not believe this narration is authentic, let alone to be followed.