Drinking Urine in Islam

Those who are versed in the hadith literature may be familiar with one of the many amazing recommendations for treating illnesses. It is a natural remedy that is easy to come by... in fact, most people make this valuable golden elixir daily and in abundance... it is urine!! Yes, urine, and the best urine to drink is camel urine! According to Islam, drinking urine is a beneficial treatment for illness.

I'm sorry for making you feel sick. I apologise in advance for the next few paragraphs which will make you feel even worse...

The most famous hadith for this amazing medicinal treatment is this one:

Narrated Abu Qilaba: "Anas said, "Some people of 'Ukl or 'Uraina tribe came to Medina and its climate did not suit them [i.e. they felt unwell]. So the Prophet ordered them to go to the herd of (Milch) camels and to drink their milk and urine (as a medicine). So they went as directed and after they became healthy, they killed the shepherd of the Prophet and drove away all the camels. The news reached the Prophet early in the morning and he sent (men) in their pursuit and they were captured and brought at noon. He then ordered to cut their hands and feet (and it was done) [see Qur'an 5:33], and their eyes were branded with heated pieces of iron [contradicting Qur'an 5:45], They were put in 'Al-Harra' and when they asked for water, no water was given to them." Abu Qilaba said, "Those people committed theft and murder, became infidels after embracing Islam and fought against Allah and His Apostle." [Sahih Bukhari, Ch: Ablutions (Wudu'), Volume 1, Book 4, Number 234]

If we look past the barbaric and violent torture and inhumane treatment of the psychopathic criminals by their deranged punishers, we can see that the prophet Muhammed recommended to some people to drink camel milk and urine to cure their illness. It is clear they didn't have any determinate illness, but just felt a little 'under the weather' and perhaps they had a touch of cold or flu. So, the prophet being the most knowledgeable man in the universe and having direct contact with god who is all-knowing in medicine of the past and future and in chemistry, and who knows better about treatment for humans than their creator? The omnipotent creator could have recommended eating some herb or plant that he had created to benefit humanity, but instead he recommended drinking foul-smelling, foul-tasting, salty, vile and unhealthy urine from a camel!

If you are a Shia Muslim you will likely reject this hadith because you do not trust the source and also you might reject the premise that the prophet was so violent. But drinking urine is present in Shia books too! I used to think drinking of urine was found only in Sunni hadith collections, but it's a concept present in Islamic teachings from both camps and references to urinotherapy are found in different books from both Shia and Sunni schools of thought, and from different periods, narrated by different people quoting prophet Muhammed and the Imams. I present a few quotes from the book Islamic Medical Wisdom: The Tibb Al-A'imma (The Medicine of the Imams), a collection of medical 'wisdom' from the Imams taken from Shia hadith books. I recommend anyone with even a basic understanding of modern medicine to look at the nonsense presented in the book.

Excerpt from page 73:

"Abu 'Abd Allah al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, said to me concerning a man who had an illness and was instructed to drink urine (al-bawl): "He should not drink it." I said: "He is compelled to drink it." He [al-Sadiq] replied: "If he is compelled to drink it and finds no medicine for his illness, then let him drink his own urine. As for the urine of others, no.""

So Imam Jafar al-Sadiq is saying you should find medicine instead of drinking urine, but if there is no other medicine then urine should have medical benefit however you should make sure to only drink your own urine! He doesn't try to identify the illness and make a recommendation for it. Instead of saying urine has no medical benefit or suggesting some alternative treatment or inventing a modern medical cure, we find the Imam recognising the medical ignorance of his time. One the same page you see he even calls wine impure (khabitha) and does not say that about foul urine!

Excerpt from page 74:

"Sama'a bin Mihran said: "I asked Abu 'Abd Allah, peace be upon him, about a person drinking the urine of camels, cattle, and sheep, suggested to him for pain, and if it were permissible to drink it. He replied 'Yes, there is no objection to it.'"

And here the Imam confirms that drinking urine from camels, cows or sheep is a good medical treatment for "pain". Of course there could be a thousand reasons why someone could be in pain but instead of finding out what the real illness is, he just confirms that urine, which lacks healing or pain-killing substances, is a suitable treatment!

Some Shia will now say that this is just some weak hadiths from a random book and ignore it. But you can't ignore it because this message of drinking urine is found in books from Shia and Sunni sources, quoting different narrators and spanning hundreds of years between them, all confirming each other. So, what do Shia scholars say? The highest scholar in Shia Islam alive today, Ayatollah Ali Sistani says¹:

2636. It is haraam [forbidden] to drink the urine of all haraam animals, and also of those whose meat is halal to eat, including, as an obligatory precaution, that of a camel. However, the urine of a camel, a cow or a sheep can be consumed, if recommended for any medical treatment.

So you can see that even he confirms it! Is this not embarrassing?

There is a need to describe what urine is because having mentioned this subject to Muslims, I have observed that they are ignorant of basic chemistry and physiology such that they are willing to imagine that there is some chemical present in urine in such a significant concentration and of high efficacy that it could possibly be beneficial when ingested! Urine contains mostly water, salts and urea, a waste product of human metabolism along with hundreds of other proteins, chemicals and minerals in trace amounts. Urine is ejected from the body as a medium for carrying waste products out of the body. These must be removed because they are toxic and their accumulation in the body can cause disease and ultimately death. Some of them are toxic by way of increasing blood pH levels causing essential reactions to stop. Other chemicals interfere with necessary life processes such as the transfer of ions in and out of cells and will induce disease or dysfunction until death. Still further, some chemicals cause serious cell damage and cell death if they accumulate, resulting in organ failure and a rapid death. The liver is the primary organ that is responsible for detoxifying chemicals and by-products of metabolism present in the blood. It does this mainly by conjugating chemicals together to inactivate them and make them less dangerous and more water soluble. One of the most prominent waste products of metabolism in the body is ammonia which is alkaline and would raise the blood pH level dangerously if the liver didn't convert it to water-soluble urea which is far less alkaline and toxic. Blood passing through the kidney is filtered of urea, excess salts and various toxins. The filtered liquid is accumulated and concentrated in the bladder increasing in toxicity and saltiness and when the bladder is somewhat full, the micturition reflex takes place and the urine passes down the urethra to the outside world.

It is a common myth that urine is completely sterile (free from bacteria and germs). In fact the renal pathway is lined with friendly bacteria and a few of these are sloughed off into the urine when it flows out. It generally has few bacteria but it may carry some undefined risks - some people/animals have bladder or urinary-tract infections and these bacteria/fungi will come out in the urine too. Then there are people/animals harbouring sexually transmitted diseases such as ghonorrhea and these too will pass out with the urine. There are even different kinds of parasites such as schistosomes that exit out through they urinary tract. So already you can see, it is not particularly hygienic and could potentially be dangerous leading to further infections and diseases.

Then there is the problem of re-ingesting toxins that the body is trying to remove. The body is removing poisons and waste products from the body in urine, so it makes sense to avoid drinking it. An obvious problem appears with drugs or chemicals like arsenic, a poisonous metal present in some underground water sources, including the holy zamzam well in Makkah. The arsenic or drug initially removed in the urine is reabsorbed again and increases the level already present in the body, causing it to become increasingly concentrated and more likely to cause harm.

The concentration of chemicals in urine tends to be low and it is only with repeat urinotherapy sessions do the levels of some chemicals start to rise to the level they illicit a physiological effect. But with potentially 'beneficial' chemicals comes a lot of salts and urea and other chemicals that are either harmful or do not do us any good at all. The proponents of using urine for medical treatment claim that it can cure all matter of diseases from skin rashes, to colds, to joint pain to serious disease like cancer, but these have not been proven. They exaggerate any potential benefit and ignore the harm it may cause. Furthermore they do not know by what mechanism it operates and they treat urine as some kind of magical liquid that is a cure-all, a panacea, for all diseases, which it couldn't possibly be. Urine cannot treat any disease. Whatever beneficial chemicals that can be obtained from urine are found elsewhere in abundance, can be extracted from urine or can be manufactured in the correct dose to be used as a clean, sterile, safe and properly tested medicine.

In conclusion, we have shown that there is no medical benefit in urine and it could quite possibly be harmful instead. The prophet Muhammed and Imams considered it a cure-all treatment, a panacea, and recommended it to ill people of different kinds. It is clear they did not have a correct understanding of medicine otherwise they would have identified the diseases properly and then recommended the appropriate cure in its place. They should never recommended urine and this indicates they had no proper medical understanding beyond their time and period and no unique insight into amazing cures or treatments. A prophet aught to have contact with god almighty and ask him how to cure illnesses and perhaps bring some goodness to his sick and suffering creation but instead we find the prophets and imams recommending camel urine. Instead of a good and healthy scientifically advanced treatment coming from Islam, something that Muslims could use as evidence of divine guidance, we find vile, salty, foul urine being presented as a health beverage by the messenger of god. Ask yourself: Would a wise, all-knowing god really recommend urine? Would a good god not have created or taught man to make a better cure?

Thank you Islam, but this is one health drink I would not like to try.


References:
¹ http://www.sistani.org/english/book/48/2375/ (accessed 14/01/2017)