Eating Locusts!
The “We Ate Locusts on Military Raids With the Prophet” Hadith: Sahih Bukhari’s Trivial Desert Bug-Eating Note That Proves Islam Is Pure 7th-Century Bedouin Survivalism
Pragmatic Introduction for Polemicists This hadith is devastatingly ordinary — and that’s exactly why it destroys any claim of divine revelation. Muhammad doesn’t teach advanced agriculture, nutrition, or hygiene. He and his companions simply raid villages six or seven times and eat whatever insects they can catch in the desert, like any starving nomadic tribe. No heavenly recipes. No scientific insight. Just “we munched locusts while conquering.” This is not the final message from the Creator of the universe. This is a warlord and his gang living exactly like 7th-century Arabian raiders — and proudly recording their bug diet as sacred tradition.
The Hadith Text (Sahih Bukhari)
Ibn Abi Awfa said: ‘We went on six or seven military expeditions with the Prophet, and we used to eat locusts with him.’
Sources & Online Links:
- Sahih al-Bukhari 5495 – Book of Slaughter and Hunting (Kitab al-Dhaba’ih wa al-Sayd), Chapter: Eating locusts https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5495
- Parallel narrations appear in Sunan Abi Dawud 3812, Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 1821-1822 (all graded sahih).
Authenticity
Sahih al-Bukhari — the single most trusted book in Islam after the Quran, which includes narrations like [the bowl seeks forgiveness for sins](https://islam-revealed.com/the-bowl-seeks-forgiveness-for-sins/). Graded sahih by Imam Bukhari himself. No weak-chain excuses. This is mainstream, undisputed Islamic scripture and sunnah.
Critical Polemical Analysis: Why This Screams “Man-Made”
- Prophet + Army Eating Bugs = Primitive Nomad Life The “Seal of the Prophets” and his warriors raid six or seven times and their notable shared activity is eating locusts. An all-knowing God giving final guidance to humanity should have revealed farming techniques, balanced diets, or at least “don’t eat insects if better food exists.” Instead we get desert scavenger behaviour.
- Military Expeditions = Raids, Not Peaceful Journeys The hadith casually links locust-eating to “ghazawat” (military expeditions/raids). This is exactly how Bedouin tribes survived: raid for food and resources, eat whatever crawls. No lofty spirituality — just conquest and calorie scavenging.
- Ibn Abi Awfa Narrates the Most Mundane Detail A companion bothers to record “we ate bugs with the Prophet.” Not wisdom, not miracles, not ethics — just their lunch menu on raids. Same pattern as golden locusts on naked Job or demon wrestling: the hadith factory churns out trivial, culturally specific trivia and calls it revelation.
- No Divine Knowledge, Just Local Survival Hack Locusts were (and still are) a cheap protein source in arid Arabia when crops failed. Muhammad simply normalises what every starving tribesman already did. A true universal revelation would have introduced something new — not endorsed pre-Islamic Bedouin foraging.
- Sunnah Turned Into Ritual Because it’s in Bukhari, millions of Muslims today consider eating locusts “sunnah.” Some even farm and sell them as “Prophetic food.” This is how a man-made desert culture gets frozen in time and sold as eternal divine wisdom.
Bottom Line for Any Honest Observer
This hadith does not sound like the words of the Lord of the Worlds who created nutrition and biology (or who will turn [the earth into a bread loaf for people to eat]). It sounds exactly like what a 7th-century Arabian raid leader would say to his hungry followers: “We went out raiding six or seven times, boys — and yeah, we ate locusts together when we got hungry.”
Prophet and army munching insects—and even donkey meat—on conquest raids. Recorded as sacred example for all humanity forever.
This is not revelation. This is man-made Bedouin survival culture and raiding lifestyle dressed up as holy sunnah.
The fact that it sits in Sahih al-Bukhari right next to naked Moses chasing stones and golden locusts raining on naked Job proves your entire case: Islam is nothing but 7th-century Arabian desert life with a prophet’s name stamped on it.
