The Aorta Argument Does NOT Disprove Islam
Certain Christian apologists claim Islam disproves itself via Quranic verses relating to the aorta, the human body's largest artery, and a Hadith regarding the Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ last days on Earth. There are all sorts of reasons why such a claim against Islam is obviously false, and today, I will go over some of them.
The Claim
Sahih al-Bukhari 4428 records the Prophet Muhammad as having said the following to his wife Aisha bint Abi Bakr (عليهما السلام) during the illness that later claimed his life:
"يَا عَائِشَةُ مَا أَزَالُ أَجِدُ أَلَمَ الطَّعَامِ الَّذِي أَكَلْتُ بِخَيْبَرَ، فَهَذَا أَوَانُ وَجَدْتُ انْقِطَاعَ أَبْهَرِي مِنْ ذَلِكَ السَّمِّ"
Translation:
"O Aisha! I still feel the pain caused by the food I ate at Khaybar, and at this time, I feel as if my aorta is being cut by that poison."
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was referencing the time a Jewish woman tried killing him with a poisoned lamb as revenge for conquering the Jewish city of Khaybar to punish the Jews of Arabia for assisting the then-idolatrous Quraysh tribe in their quest to destroy Islam. Although there are different versions of this story, one of the most commonly cited ones is mentioned in Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri's biography of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, The Sealed Nectar. I will recount this story via quoting parts of my review of the book:
"After the battle, a Jewish woman named Zaynab bint al-Harith offered a poisoned lamb to [the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.] He bit off a mouthful and found its taste unpleasant, so he spit it out…the meat literally, [miraculously] told him it was poisoned. [Zaynab] confessed [to poisoning] the food to test if the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was a…true prophet, and was killed when one of his companions died from the poison."
Going back to the earlier cited Hadith, Christians claim it proves the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to be a liar through the Quran's own standards:
"وَلَوْ تَقَوَّلَ عَلَيْنَا بَعْضَ ٱلْأَقَاوِيلِ لَأَخَذْنَا مِنْهُ بِٱلْيَمِينِ ثُمَّ لَقَطَعْنَا مِنْهُ ٱلْوَتِينَ فَمَا مِنكُم مِّنْ أَحَدٍ عَنْهُ حَـٰجِزِين"
Translation:
"Had the Messenger, [i.e. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ,] made up something in Our [i.e. God's] Name, We would have certainly seized him by his right hand, then severed his aorta, and none of you could have shielded him [from Us!]" - Surat al-Haqqah, Verses 44-47
Refuting the Claim
Linguistic Analysis
In Sahih al-Bukhari 4428, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ specifically refers to his aorta as his ʾabhar (أبهر). Meanwhile, the Quranic verses mentioned earlier instead refer to his aorta as his watīn (وتين). Classical Arabic makes a clear distinction between the two words. Citing Ibn Manzur's The Tongue of the Arabs, widely considered the best Classical Arabic dictionary, Islamweb defines watīn in the following:
"Watīn: A vein in the heart. If it is severed [in a person, they] die. [Linguist] Ibn Sidah said, 'the watīn is a vein attached to the backbone along its entire inner side. It supplies all the veins...and...flesh [with blood;] it is the 'river' of the body.' It has also been said it is a white vein running inside the vertebrae, and it has been said, 'the watīn draws [its blood] from the heart, and contains blood...' it has been said it is the cord or attachment of the heart...[and] it has also been said it is a thick, white vein, as though it were a reed...Abu Ishaq said, '[the watīn] is a vein situated within the spine, to which the abdomen comes together, toward which the veins converge."
ʾAbhar, on the other hand, according to Majd ad-Din Ibn Athir's The End in the Rare Words of the Hadith and the Traditions, means the following:
"The ʾabhar is a vein in the back, and there are two [of them.] It has also been said they are the two ʾakḥal veins located in the forearms, [referring to the median cubital veins]. It has also been said it is a blood vessel lying within the heart, such that if it is severed, life does not remain, and it has been said the abhar is a vein whose origin is in the head and which extends down to the foot. It has arteries branching from it that connect with most of the extremities and the body. Its portion in the head is called the naʾmah, hence the saying, 'may God silence his naʾmah,' meaning, 'may God cause him to die.' It extends to the throat, where it is called the warīd [referring to the the jugular vein;] it extends to the chest, where it is called the ʾabhar; it extends to the back, where it is called the watīn; and the heart is attached to it. It extends to the thigh, where it is called the nasā; and it extends to the lower leg, where it is called the ṣāfin."
Through the passages above, we observe the watīn which God said He would sever if the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ fabricated divine revelation and the ʾabhar which the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ described on his deathbed are two separate blood vessels. Albeit the definitions differ, the watīn described fits the description of the aorta less, and it is possibly even a part of a whole other body part alongside the ʾabhar.
One may accuse me of grasping straws, but it should be noted the Quran is widely held to be the best in Arabic literature ever. Every single word it uses is for specific reasons.
The Idiomatic Side
It should also be noted cutting one's ʾabhar was simply a Classical Arabic metaphor denoting death or something equal to it, not a literal aortic rupture or aortic dissection. Abd al-Malik ibn Idris, companions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and even pre-Islamic poet Bishr ibn Abi Khazim all used the metaphor of severing one's ʾabhar to mean death or heartbreak. Sources linked in this post's Sources section go more in-depth regarding this.
Other Quick Points
- The Hadith has certain defects, casting doubts on its authenticity.
- Even if one were to affirm a literal interpretation, the Hadith still cannot be used to disprove Islam, as contradicting God's threat in the Quran, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was not "seized by his right hand."
- It would be very counterproductive for God to kill the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ when Islam was complete and revelation was finally over. Quranic commentaries state God's punishment would have been very swift if the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ ever lied.
- The poison in the lamb Zaynab bint al-Harith served after the Battle of Khaybar was strong enough to kill the Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ companion, with some stating he died on the spot from it, clearly showing the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was not affected by the poison beyond gaining some chronic pain from the incident.
- The Battle of Khaybar, and hence the attempted poisoning, taking place about four years before the Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ death negates the possibilities of him dying of an aortic rupture or an aortic dissection. Nowadays, 90% of people with aortic ruptures die before making it to the operating table, and 90% of people with untreated aortic dissections die in the first month. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ would have certainly almost instantly died right after the Battle of Khaybar in seventh-century Arabia pre-modern medicine if his aorta truly suffered.
- Hadiths and biographies record the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as dying of an ordinary fever at an old age, not from a poison-induced aortic rupture or dissection. Even secular historians like Alford T. Welch affirm this.
- The Quranic verses detailing the Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ hypothetical punishment for lying say no one would be able to stop it, implying such a punishment would have been a public event. On the contrary, the Hadith where the Prophet Muhammad said his abhar was cut detailed a seemingly private moment between him and Aisha (عليهما السلام).
- Typical poison cannot physically induce an aortic rupture or an aortic dissection.
Conclusion
It can be said with absolute certainty there is not a connection between Sahih al-Bukhari 4428 and Surat al-Haqqah's verses regarding the aorta. Such a non-existent connection can easily be refuted by history, basic logic, medicine, and linguistics. If one were to seriously believe the Quran very specifically detailed the Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ death, they would have to acknowledge him as at least being a "fallen prophet" like Balaam who originally received divine revelation until going astray. In reality, he was obviously always a true prophet.
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