A desert Arab came to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and said: My wife has given birth to a dark-complexioned child and I have disowned him. Thereupon Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) said: Have you any camels? He said: Yes. He said: What is their colour? He said? They are red. He said: Is there anyone dusky among them? He said: Yes. Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: How has it come about? He said: Messenger of Allah, it is perhaps due to the strain to which it has reverted, whereupon the Prophet (ﷺ) said: It (the birth) of the black child may be due to the strain to which he (the child) might have reverted.
The Book of Invoking Curses - Sahih Muslim 1500 c
A desert Arab came to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and said: My wife has given birth to a dark-complexioned child and I have disowned him. Thereupon Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) said: Have you any camels? He said: Yes. He said: What is their colour? He said: They are red. He said: Is there anyone dusky among them? He said: Yes. Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: How has it come about? He said: Messenger of Allah, it is perhaps due to the strain to which it has reverted, whereupon the Prophet (ﷺ) said: It (the birth) of the black child may be due to the strain to which he (the child) might have reverted.
Scholarly Commentary
This profound hadith from Sahih Muslim demonstrates the Prophet's wisdom in addressing complex social and biological matters. The desert Arab's immediate disowning of his dark-complexioned child reflects pre-Islamic ignorance regarding genetic inheritance.
The Prophet's method of using the analogy of camels - creatures well-known to the Bedouin - exemplifies divine pedagogical wisdom. Just as red camels can produce dusky offspring due to ancestral traits (the "strain" referred to in Arabic as "'irq"), human children may inherit characteristics from distant ancestors.
This teaching establishes crucial Islamic principles: the prohibition of unfounded accusations against chaste women, the understanding of genetic inheritance, and the rejection of racism based on skin color. The Prophet gently corrected the man's ignorance without harshness, guiding him toward proper understanding of divine creation.
The term "reverting to strain" refers to atavism in modern terminology - the reappearance of ancestral characteristics skipped in immediate generations. This demonstrates Islam's compatibility with scientific truth centuries before modern genetics.