PrintJune 13, 2007
News from Egypt
Sweetness & Light draws our attention to a MEMRI dispatch explaining a serious dispute in Egypt among the holy men of Islam: on drinking the Prophet's urine (or any other excretions) . From L. Azuri's article for MEMRI:
An uproar in the Egyptian media followed the recent publication of a book by Egyptian Mufti Dr. Ali Gum'a in which he claimed that the companions of the Prophet Muhammad would drink his urine to be blessed.
Muhammad, I have been told by many Muslims, is the most perfect man, a model for all eternity. But this fatwa led to a firestorm, in which many attacked Gum'a, some demanding his prosecution for harming Islam.
The fatwa provoked strong objections on the part of the Egyptian religious establishment. Leading Al-Azhar and Religious Endowments Ministry officials stated that Gum'a's conclusions were mistaken even though they were based on Islamic sources. They added that his claims were inappropriate for the modern era and that they only caused embarrassment in the Egyptian street and did damage to the Prophet and to Islam. [....]
In his book Religion and Life - Modern Everyday Fatwas, Egyptian Mufti Dr. Ali Gum’a wrote that the companions of the Prophet Muhammad would bless themselves by drinking his urine, and described an incident of urine-drinking from a hadith: “Umm Ayman drank the urine of the Prophet, and the prophet told her: ‘This stomach will not be dragged through the fire of Hell, because it contains something of our Lord the Messenger of Allah…’
Some of the arguments against the fatwa could be interpreted as "Shush! The time is not yet right."
Steve Gilbert's droll comment at the end of his post:
"Perhaps this is why there is no Muslim space program."
