Bani Israel is the reason for meat rotting

Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet (S) said, “If it was not for the Israelites, meat would not decay. And if it was not for Eve, wives would never betray their husbands.” (Bukhari)

Hammam b. Munabbih said:
These are some of the ahadith which Abu Huraira (Allah be pleased with him) narrated to us from Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ), and one of these (this one): Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said: Had it not been for Bani Isra’il (the Israelites), food would not have become stale, and meat would not have gone bad; and had it not been for Eve, a woman would never have acted unfaithfully towards her husband. (Muslim)

And since we know that these Israelites lived less than 4,000 years ago, it means that the meat-spoiling organisms (like E. Coli, Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, Staph. aureus, etc.) could not possibly have existed more than 4,000 years ago either?

10 thoughts on “Bani Israel is the reason for meat rotting

  1. Sigh,

    The Hadith doesn’t say that meat-spoiling organisms existed 4K years ago nor this Hadith stops you or me from believing in the scientific age of the organisms.

    I can argue that “if it wasn’t for water, humans wouldnt exist.” This statement doesn’t mean that water exists at the same time as humans did nor it stops you or me from believing the scientific age of water.

    So saying “it of wasn’t for Israelites, meat won’t go bad” this statement isn’t scientifically right nor wrong. So it doesn’t really matter what you think.

    1. I appreciate the response “Dark Lives Matter”.
      Unlike the statement “if it wasn’t for water, humans wouldnt exist.” which actually makes sense, what does the hadith “if it wasn’t for Israelites, meat won’t go bad” mean?

      1. I don’t know the meaning nor I care about the meaning. Whatever it’s mean is, it won’t stop me from looking at it from a scientific view. Nor should you.

  2. You shouldn’t be surprised. His statement isn’t scientifically correct or wrong. So it’s meaning doesn’t really bother me. If Allah created that organism for such purpose, then I don’t see why not. But applying science to it to prove it wrong is just absurd.

  3. The meaning actually is that these were the people of Israel who started the general practice of hoarding surplus food with them which used to rot and get wasted. Before them generally the people used to collect food only for their own selves. And when they had surplus they would share it with other people (either through charity or trade). So they were actually the people who started the general practice that lead to wasting of food.

  4. You would have thought that the creator of the universe would have known of the existence of putrifying micro-organisms.

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