Is the hadith of 360 joints scientific or unscientific? A Thread...🧵
Sometime back, I was discussing with an athiest this hadith. He quoted the "Myscle Manual" that claims that joints of the body are 472 not 360. As a medical student, I checked it and found out where the confusion is. It has to do with definitions.
Surprisingly, Anatomists don't have a universally accepted definition of what a joint is and neither does the arabic language. Accordingly, different doctors will give different numbers, like how Muscle Manual says 472 while Hudson Physicians and others says 360.
We also are not sure what the prophet meant by the word "مفصل". Is it only between bones or does it include cartilages. Was he talking about moving joints or all joints, even fused ones. Truly, we don't know. Ironically, this makes the athiest's critique of the hadith baseless.
With that being said, we can construct a reasonable guess of what the prophet and the companions meant or understood by joint. At the end of this hadith, the prophet uses the word "سلامى", which is commonly used as "finger joints" and broadly used as moving joints or body parts.
The website Bayanelislam says that this wording indicates that prophet could have meant moving joints. Also, this opinion is supported by Imam Al-Khatabi, Imam Baghabi, and Imam Nawawi. Source (
bayanelislam.net/Suspicion.aspx…
Here is a list of all moving joints (Diarthrosis and Ampiathrosis), while excluding immovable joints (Synarthrosis). Gor this list, I used Kenhub (A very reliable website used in universities) and Muscle Manual.
Now, the sum of all of them is 360. However, I have to mention that there is controversy on whether or not the Uncovertebral joints are true joints or not. Most sources do mention is as a synovial true joint, but the point that this controversy exists should be noted.
Finally, God only knows what the prophet truly meant. However, this gives no right for both the Muslim and the Critic to argument for or against the validity of Islam based on this hadith. If I have made an errors in my research, please DM me for correction. Jazakumallahkheir.
