Hawl Hadith al-Dhubab
- Author died
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- Editions
- Islamic University of Madinah
Hawl Hadith al-Dhubab (Around the Hadith of the Fly) is a specialized hadith treatise by the Saudi scholar Amin Muhammad Salim, an instructor at the Higher Institute of Islamic Da'wah (المعهد العالي للدعوة الإسلامية), dedicated to the textual, juristic, and medical explanation of the prophetic narration concerning the fly .
Purpose and Scope
The treatise was composed as an analytical study explaining the hadith recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and other collections on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, in which the Prophet ﷺ stated: إذا وقع الذباب في إناء أحدكم فليغمسه كلّه ثم ليطرحه فإن في إحدى جناحيه داء وفي الآخر شفاء ("If a fly falls into the vessel of one of you, let him immerse it completely and then throw it away, for in one of its wings is a disease and in the other is a cure") . Salim structured the study to address both the traditional religious disciplines and the modern debates regarding the narration, aiming to refute Westernized skeptics who questioned its plausibility and to present the text as a manifestation of the signs of prophecy (a'lam al-nubuwwah) .
Structure and Contents
The work opens with the full text and chains of transmission of the narration, examining its narrators, such as the prominent traditionist Qutaybah ibn Sa'id . It then proceeds to a linguistic commentary on the noun dhubab (fly), citing classical lexicographers such as Abu Hilal al-Askari and al-Jawhari on its morphology, etymology—such as the explanation that it is named for its continuous motion or because it returns whenever driven away (kullama dhubba ab)—and natural characteristics .
The core analysis of the book is divided into two primary issues:
- The Juristic Issue (al-Mas'alah al-Fiqhiyyah): Salim examines the legal deduction drawn from the command to submerge the fly, specifically regarding the ritual purity of water and foodstuffs when creatures lacking flowing blood (ma la nafsa lahu sa'ilah) fall into them. He cites the deductions of al-Shafi'i (via al-Bayhaqi) that the Prophet ﷺ would not command immersing something that corrupts or defiles water, alongside the views of scholars such as al-Baghawi and Abu al-Tayyib al-Tabari regarding whether immersion necessarily causes the insect's death or functions primarily as a preventive remedy .
- The Medical Issue (al-Mas'alah al-Tibbiyyah): Salim evaluates the text from the standpoint of medicine and biology, highlighting two prophetic signs: that the fly carries pathogens causing specific diseases (such as cholera, typhoid, and dysentery on its legs and proboscis), and that it simultaneously carries an antidote capable of neutralizing those pathogens . He integrates historical observations from classical authorities like Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah and Abu Muhammad al-Maqili on the therapeutic use of flies against stings and eye ailments with modern microbiological findings regarding antibiotic-producing fungi and cellular rupture upon pressure .
Publication
The research was published in the journal of the Islamic University of Madinah (Majallat al-Jami'ah al-Islamiyyah bi-al-Madinah al-Munawwarah) in its fifty-third issue, and has also been circulated as an independent monograph .
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