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Did Prophet Muhammad Advise His Followers to Drink Camel Urine?
Rafat Al Jassim
The University of Queensland, Australia
The last two decades have witnessed an intensification in the campaign of a few misinformed
academics in the Muslim World to support suspicious reporting of stories that Prophet Muhammad
had indicated that Muslims should drink camel urine. The campaign went on to argue the benefits of
drinking camel urine in a clearly failed attempt at giving scientific backing to the campaign.
This is an attempt to show that the campaign lacks the historical ground making it a fiction based on
Bedouin customs rather than Islamic principles.
The role of the prophet (pbuh) was clearly stated in the holy book “Quran”. It was clearly stated:
 In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful, “And We have not revealed to you the Book,
[O Muhammad], except for you to make clear to them that wherein they have differed and as
guidance and mercy for a people who believe”. Surat An-Nahl, verse 64.
In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful, “By the star when it goes down • Your
companion is neither astray nor being misled • Nor does he say (aught) of (his own) desire • It is
no less than inspiration sent down to him” Surat An-Najim, verses 1-4.
Muslims have come to accept that the saying and actions of the Prophet are complimentary to Quran and
would be accepted without hesitation. But while the text of Quran has not been doubted or seriously
challenged by Muslims, the claimed saying and actions of the Prophet have been subject of many disputes
and arguments. In short their authenticity has been questioned. It is not difficult to see how dangerous such
conviction regarding the position of the Prophet in Islam. All that a jurist or a political leader needs, in order
to propagate an idea or policy, is to fabricate a saying or action and attribute it the Prophet.
Islam managed to change some conduct or custom of Arabia that prevailed before the coming of the
Prophet. But undoubtedly not all were changed. The camel as is expected formed the heart of society in
Arabia as life could not be imagined without it. So much so that so many words in Arabic commonly in use
today would find their roots in verbs or adjectives that related to camel action.
The Bedouin used to rely so much on the camel and one of their practices had been to use its urine for what
they considered to be medicinal purposes. There may have been reasons for its use in soe cases such as
cleaning dirty hair or healing wounds and so on, but there has never been any proof that it has any medicinal
or health benefits.
Medicine developed and thrived in Baghdad in the 10 century but not one single prominent doctor wrote a
single article on the benefits of camel urines. The only explanation is that either they did not believe in the
authenticity of the sayings attributed to the Prophet on the benefits of camel urine or that these saying were
not known and were only fabricated later. In either case this fact goes to support the lack of historic bases
for the claim and bogus campaign.