Back to search

Is the interpretation of the saying, "The fly has one wing with disease and the other with a cure," scientifically accurate?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

In the authentic Hadith, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: "If a fly falls into the drink of any one of you, he should dip it completely, and then throw it away, for in one of its wings there is disease and in the other there is healing." Narrated by Al-Bukhari. This Hadith mentions two points: one is that the fly is a carrier of disease, and the other is that the fly carries antibiotics. This is confirmed by what the German scientist "Brefeld" discovered in 1871, concerning the presence of a parasitic fungus called "Empusa muscae" that lives in flies and secretes cells capable of analyzing and dissolving parts of the insect. Other scientists have also been able to isolate antibiotic substances from fungi that live in flies, such as "Javacine," "Clotizine," and "Eniatin," and their effectiveness against various types of pathogenic germs has been demonstrated. Therefore, dipping the fly into food leads to the bursting of the fungal cells within it, releasing enzymes and antagonistic substances that kill the germs carried by the fly, thereby rendering the food free from disease.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

Read the full answer on Ftawy