Understanding The Prophet's Life
From Issue: 888 [Read full issue]
Science and Traditions
"When you get up from your bed, don't put your hand in a bowl [of food or drink] before washing it three times. You don't know where your hands have been while you were asleep." [Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud]
People often suffer from allergies or an itch. They might have scratched the affected places while sleeping, thereby accumulating germs, particularly under their fingernails. If such people eat (from communal bowls) without washing their hands, other people may become infected.
The Messenger always depended on Revelation, whether explicit or implicit. His Companions, famous for truthfulness, followed him as closely as possible and narrated whatever they received from him. Meticulous, truth-loving Traditionists collected the Traditions reaching them through reliable, trustworthy, and upright narrators. Some authentic Traditions predict certain future events and scientific developments. Just as none of these have yet proven to be false, so too no one has been able to falsify any other authentic Traditions.
Creation still holds some mysteries, and will continue to do so, regardless of human scientific and other progress. Psychic events or supernormal phenomena like telepathy and second sight, necromancy and other transcendental experiences, give clues to the existence of worlds or dimensions different from our own. As it is possible to find references to this in the Quran, some Traditions also may be dealt with from this viewpoint.
Compiled From:
"Muhammad: The Messenger of God" - Fethullah Gulen, pp. 355