I therefore feared that it was not preserved, since the established, well-known wording in the two Ṣaḥīḥs and elsewhere is only “the body,” as stated above. So I traced the hadith’s various narrations through the hadith compilations, until I found it in al-Musnad with the wording “the human being.” This is a strong corroborating witness for the hadith under discussion, and the wording of the two Shaykhs—“the body”—has the same meaning, contrary to the view of one contemporary physician, as will be explained.

The second consideration was that I met one of the physicians here in Amman. He began telling me of some of his medical discoveries—discoveries about which his fellow physicians had doubts, as he himself informed me. Among them was his claim that beside every person’s navel is a small piece of flesh that is the cause of health and illness; that he treats diseases by means of it; and that it is what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) meant in this hadith when he said, “If it is sound …” When I countered him with the Prophet’s words at the end of the hadith, “Indeed, it is the heart,” he said, “This addition is not authentic.”

I said, “How can that be, when it occurs in the hadith narrated by al-Bukhari?” He said, “Is al-Bukhari infallible?” I said, “No, but to declare him mistaken requires evidence, by showing what proves this addition to be weak.” He said, “It is interpolated.” I said, “Which hadith scholar has said this? Every field of knowledge has its specialists.” He said, “I heard this from one of the leading hadith scholars in Egypt.” He named him at the time, but I did not retain his name clearly. I said, “If he did say that, it proves that he was not as you described him in his knowledge of hadith, for it is merely an unprecedented claim, unsupported by any evidence.”

I then said to him, “Your words suggest that you understand the hadith as referring to physical soundness and deterioration.” He said, “Yes.” I said, “That is another error. Do you not know that this hadith is the conclusion of a hadith that begins, ‘The lawful is clear and the forbidden is clear …’? It also states, ‘Whoever avoids doubtful matters has safeguarded his religion and his honor …’ This makes it explicit that