Question:
Does the (Sahabas) companions slaughtered camels due to thirst and extracted water drips during the expedition of Tabuk?
Answer:
This question requires examining the specific narrations and their authenticity in the classical sources. That must be addressed separately by analyzing the chains and reports carefully.
In this hadith, it is mentioned that a man slaughtered his camel, then squeezed its intestine and drank water from it. It even says that because of extreme hardship, he smeared the remaining water over his entire body and chest. It is narrated that the water shortage was so severe that ʿUmar (RA) informed the Messenger of Allahﷻﷺ about it in this manner. The hadith describes that they squeezed the camel’s intestine and drank the water from it.
If you ask where this narration appears, it is mentioned in the works of Ibn Khuzaymah, Al-Hakim al-Nishapuri (in Al-Mustadrak), Al-Bayhaqi (in Al-Sunan al-Kubraa), and Al-Tabarani (in Al-Muʿjam al-Awsat). This wording is what exists.
But what he does is “build up” the narration dramatically — the way street preachers exaggerate — referenced a video of a TNTJ speaker who presents it emotionally, saying it brings tears to the eyes.
He describes the Battle of Tabuk as occurring during intense heat and claims that due to severe thirst, some companions chased mirages, mistaking them for water, and died in the desert unable to return. He says that in desperation they slaughtered a camel meant for transport, drank from its “water bag,” and when that was exhausted, squeezed its rectum or dung intestine to extract drops of water.
This description is incorrect and shows lack of understanding about camels. A camel can drink up to 100 litters of water at once. But that does not mean it has a separate “water bag.” What it actually has is a stomach compartment that stores consumed water and food together. Like cows, camels are ruminants. They swallow food quickly, store it in a stomach compartment, and later regurgitate it to chew again.
Before the food becomes dung, there is a storage compartment where water and food are mixed together. That is not feces. The dung is formed only later, in a separate intestinal section. Camel dung is dry, like goat pellets, not moist like cow dung. If you squeeze goat droppings, will water flow? Even if a few drops come, would that quench the thirst of people dying of dehydration? It would not.
So when the hadith mentions squeezing, it refers to extracting water from the stomach compartment where water and undigested food are stored — not from feces. The Arabic term used is “fars” (or similar wording referring to the stomach content), which in Qur’anic language refers to the stage before it becomes excrement.
Allahﷻ says in the Qur’an that milk is produced from between digested matter and blood — meaning from that intermediate stage, not from filth itself.
So what happened is this: among the Arabs, during severe water shortages, if a camel was slaughtered for meat, they would also use the stored stomach water. That water contains food particles floating in it — like vegetables floating in water — but it is not feces. It is still considered water mixed with food. If filtered, perhaps 75% would be water.
That is what they drank — not dung squeezed drop by drop as he dramatically describes.
He exaggerates by saying they squeezed dung cloth by cloth and drank droplets. That is not supported by the hadith. The hadith does not say they squeezed feces. It refers to extracting from the stomach contents.