Honey.

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:salamext:

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The Prophet’s sallallahu alaihi wasallam guidance using honey, cupping and cauterising as rememdies.

Al-Bukhari narrated that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said:
“There is cure in three substances, a drink of honey, a slash with a knife used for cupping and cauterising by fire. I forbid my Nation from cauterising by fire.”

The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam indicated that honey is used as a laxative…
(pg 58)

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The Prophet’s sallallahu alaihi wasallam guidance on beverages.

The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam used to drink honey with cold water, and this is an especially effective method to preserve the health that only the best doctors could have knowledge of. Drinking honey on an empty stomach will dissolve phlegm, purify the stomach’s protective layers and dissipate its viscidity and excrements while heating it mildly. Honey also helps against clogs in the stomach, kidney, liver and prostate. Honey is much more profitable to the stomach than any other sweet.

We should state that honey may harm those suffering from bile, because it aggravates it. In this care, the harmful side effect of honey is neutralised when taking it with vinegar, as this method makes the honey very beneficial. In addition, honey is much more beneficial than any other sugar based drink, especially for those who are not used to these types of sweet drinks.
(pg 202)
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‘Asal (Honey)

Ibn Jurayj said that az-Zuhri said, “Eat honey because it is good for the memory.” The best type of honey is the white, pure, light and sweet honey. Also, the honey that is collected from trees and mountains is better than the honey that is grown in the cells. Further, the quality of the honey varies according to the area where the bees collected their food.
(pg 296)
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Some peopler prefer sugarcane to honey because it is not as hot as honey and because it is milder on the stomach. This is not fair for honey, which is much more profitable than sugarcane. Also, Allaah has made honey both a cure and a type of sweet. So how can one compare the benefits of honey and the benefits of sugarcane?
- Honey strengthens the stomach, soothes the natural process, strengthens the eyesight and heals diphtheria when gargled, facial paralysis and hemiplegia (paralysis affecting only one side of the body).

- It also helps against all types of cold illnesses that occur in the body because of excess moistures.

- Honey extracts and pulls excess moistures from the body, preserves the health, and increases semen production, cleanses and decomposes the contents of the stomach.

- Also, honey cleanses the intestine, fights worms and prevents septic repletion (over eating).

- Further, honey is a good type of food and favourable for those who suffer from phlegm and for old people.

In short, no substance is more beneficial for the body as a food, as a remedy and as an ingredient and a preserver of medications, which also strengthens the stomach, than honey.
There are many more benefits for honey. So how can anyone compare it to sugarcane, which does not have even a fraction of the benefits contained in honey?
(pg 309)

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This is a pretty cool article on honey i read in Emel...


And your Lord revealed to the bee saying: Make hives in the mountains and in the trees and in what they build. Then eat of all the fruits and walk in the ways of your Lord submissively. There comes forth from within it a beverage of many colours, in which there is a healing for men. (16:68)

Cleopatra bathed in it, Aristotle wrote about its remarkable healing powers and Winnie the Pooh just couldn't get enough of its scrumptious taste.

For centuries honey has been revered for its delectable sweetness and powerful medicinal benefits. The Ancient Egyptians, Assyrians and Greeks all recognised its therapeutic properties for wound healing and made offerings of the precious substance to their gods. The Romans, too, embraced the versatile uses of honey and beekeeping flourished throughout the Empire.

The Torah, Biblical Proverbs and the Quran all extol the virtues of honey for good nutrition and health. In the Quran, the verse of the bee refers to the outpouring of a beverage from beehives that possess great healing powers for Man. The Prophet Muhammad (saw) too, reiterated the status of honey as a gift from God, advocating it as medicine for the body as the Quran is medicine for the soul. He prescribed it as a treatment for a range of common health problems, including stomach upsets and diarrhoea.

The creation of honey results from a highly systematised production process. A worker bee must first collect nectar from a flower and transport it to the hive, where the nectar is deposited within a honeycomb. The bee then fans the comb with its wings to evaporate excess water and later coats it with a protective wax to seal in the forming honey. This process is done 154 times in order to produce enough honey for just one teaspoon!

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The resulting honey is a complex formula of vitamins, minerals and amino acids, including magnesium, potassium, calcium, iron and copper. It also contains a variety of sugars, such as fructose and glucose, which have an ability to convert into other sugars and therefore make honey an easily digestible food. This has particular benefits for convalescents and those suffering from gastrointestinal disorders, whose digestive systems may be impaired.

The plentiful supply of sugar means that honey is a great source of energy, rapidly diffusing into the bloodstream, diminishing fatigue and improving brain function as a result. Additionally, whilst it does have a high acid content, honey actually aids the healing of peptic ulcers and heartburn; conditions that are usually aggravated by acidic food. It has also been noted to tone the kidneys, enabling them to function more efficiently.

Honey, especially the darker varieties, is also particularly rich in antioxidants (substances that protect the body from damage by free radicals). Free radicals have been linked to the development of many serious illnesses and recent studies have suggested that regular consumption of honey may help to prevent cancer. The most remarkable benefit of honey has been in its role as an aid to wound healing. It contains an enzyme that produces hydtogen peroxide and stimulates antimicrobial activity, thereby preventing infections by killing bacteria. Simultaneously, other ingredients like vitamin C speed the growth of healthy tissue. Such qualities make honey a useful remedy for sore throats, burns, tooth infections, cuts and ulcers.

As a beauty product, honey is often found in face masks and lotions and has been a popular cosmetic tool for thousands of years. Its natural anti-irritant qualities make it suitable for use on the sensitive skin around the face, whilst its effectiveness in absorbing water makes it an excellent moisturiser. A combination of honey and olive oil is often used to condition the hair, leaving it with a healthy, glossy shine.

Once known as "The Isle of Honey", Britain followed such advice until the last century. Used traditionally as both a food sweetener and as an effective antibiotic, the popularity of honey declined after the First World War as refined white sugar and penicillin began to substitute it as a nutritional and medicinal staple. More recently, as the demand for natural medicinal remedies has grown, honey has been embraced as a contemporary super food that could hold the key to managing, and perhaps even curing, a number of common health complaints.

The End.

[Woodrow]

Asalaamu Alaikum,

Honey really is a truly amasing substance. Just to begin with the bee produces many times more honey then the hive will ever use. Then the bee is given a protective system to protect that honey from all predators. Very few creatures besides man are able to overcome the bee's defenses to harvest honey. then honey is a probably the only food product that will not spoil in it's natural state. Pure Honey, will still be edible many years after harvest as long as it is not diluted with water or any other liquid. Pure honey will not sour, ferment or grow bacteria. I know you will say some people produce a liquor from honey, but that is not pure honey, the honey has to be drasticaly diluted with water before yeast will grow in it. Natural pure honey will not ferment.

Another amasing thing. The honey bee is not native to the Americas. Now why would Allah(swt) have done that? Possibly because in areas here where there is a large growth of loco-weed, honey produced from the flowers will be poisonous. In other areas there are plants that will make the honey bitter and inedible. To produce good honey in the US the bees must be domesticated and allowed to feed only in safe feeding areas.

Honey from escaped wild bees especialy in the South western USA can be risky to eat.

Also odd is the African honey bee is no problem in Africa, but here in the States they are extremely agressive and quite dangerous, giving the name of "Killer Bees".

Somehow it makes sense that honey bees are not native to the Americas.