Olive Oil in the Quran and Sunnah: Every Hadith Verified

Olive Oil in the Quran and Sunnah: Every Hadith Verified

Olive oil is the most textually anchored food in the Islamic tradition. The olive tree (zaytunah) is called shajaratin mubarakatin — "a blessed tree" — in the Verse of Light, Surah An-Nur 24:35. Allah swears by the fig and the olive in the opening of Surah At-Tin 95:1. A tree at Mount Sinai "producing oil and relish for those who eat" is described in Surah Al-Mu'minun 23:20. And in an authentic hadith preserved across Jami' at-Tirmidhi and Sunan Ibn Majah, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ instructed his companions to eat olive oil and anoint themselves with it, "for it comes from a blessed tree." What follows is the full verified stack — three Quranic verses, five sahih hadith with Darussalam gradings, Ibn al-Qayyim and Ibn Sina by edition, and the modern peer-reviewed evidence — held to the store's medical-claims firewall throughout.

The short answer, stated plainly

The olive, the olive tree, or the oil pressed from it is referenced by name in the Quran in at least six verses, with three of those verses forming the core textual pole of the tradition: Surah An-Nur 24:35 (the Verse of Light), Surah At-Tin 95:1 (the oath by the fig and the olive), and Surah Al-Mu'minun 23:20 (the tree of Mount Sinai). In the Prophetic tradition, the instruction to eat olive oil and anoint with it is preserved in three sahih narrations — Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1851, Sunan Ibn Majah 3319, and Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1852 — all graded sahih by Darussalam. A fourth sahih narration, Sunan Ibn Majah 3449, names olive oil as the carrier for the Prophet's ﷺ black-seed nasal-drop preparation. One widely-shared narration, Sunan Ibn Majah 3320, is graded da'if (weak) and should not be cited. That distinction — the difference between an authentic teaching and a popular misquotation — is the reason this article exists.

Olive oil in the Quran — three verses that frame a civilization's relationship with a tree

The Quran names the olive across several surahs. Three verses in particular anchor the tradition and are worth reading in full.

Surah An-Nur 24:35 — the Verse of Light (Ayat an-Nur)

The most-commented verse in the Quran on the olive is the Verse of Light, in Surah An-Nur.

"Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp, the lamp is within glass, the glass as if it were a pearly [white] star lit from [the oil of] a blessed olive tree, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil would almost glow even if untouched by fire. Light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He wills…" >— Surah An-Nur (24:35), Sahih International translation. Available at https://quran.com/24/35

Several features of this verse are worth noticing. First, the olive tree is called shajaratin mubarakatin zaytunatin — a blessed olive tree. The adjective mubarakatin (blessed) is the same Quranic word used for sacred places, sacred nights, and sacred persons. Applied here to a tree, it elevates the olive above the register of ordinary produce. Second, the verse specifies la sharqiyyatin wa la gharbiyyatin — "neither of the east nor the west." Classical tafsir reads this geographically (a tree positioned so that sun reaches it throughout the day, producing the finest oil) and metaphysically (a tree not bound by the opposing poles of earthly direction). Third, the olive oil is the vehicle of the metaphor for divine light itself: it is the oil whose clarity is so pure that "its oil would almost glow even if untouched by fire." The olive is not incidental to the verse. It is the verse's image of light.

Surah At-Tin 95:1 — the oath by the fig and the olive

The opening of Surah At-Tin is one of the Quran's divine oaths.

"By the fig and the olive." >— Surah At-Tin (95:1), Sahih International translation. Available at https://quran.com/95

Divine oaths in the Quran — wa al-tini wa al-zaytun, "by the fig and the olive" — are rare and weighty. Allah swears in the Quran by the sun, the moon, the day, the night, the pen, specific locations such as Mount Sinai and the sanctuary of Makkah, and by several foods, among which the fig and the olive are named explicitly and together. Classical commentators read the pairing as a reference both to the physical fruits — a short tree and a long-lived one, each bearing a food valued across the Mediterranean and the Levant — and to the lands the two trees signify, Jerusalem and Damascus among them. Al-Bara' ibn 'Azib (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that he heard the Prophet ﷺ reciting this surah in the Isha prayer with a beautiful voice — a narration preserved in Sahih al-Bukhari 7546, graded sahih.

Surah Al-Mu'minun 23:20 — the tree of Mount Sinai

A third anchor verse sits in Surah Al-Mu'minun.

"And [We produce] a tree issuing from Mount Sinai which produces oil and food [i.e., relish] for those who eat." >— Surah Al-Mu'minun (23:20), Sahih International translation. Available at https://quran.com/23/20

The tree is not named in the verse. Classical tafsir — Ibn Kathir (d. 774 AH / 1373 CE) and al-Qurtubi among others — identifies it as the olive. The reasoning is straightforward: the verse describes a tree growing at Mount Sinai that produces duhn (oil) and relish for eaters; the tree answering to that description in the region is the olive. That identification is consensus across the mainstream Sunni tafsir tradition.

A note on counting — how many times is the olive mentioned in the Quran?

A figure often repeated online is that "olives are mentioned seven times in the Quran." The precise count is less settled than the phrase suggests. The Arabic root z-y-t gives rise to al-zayt (the oil), zaytun (olives, the fruit), and zaytunah (the olive tree, singular). The tree, the fruit, or the oil is referenced directly in at least the following verses:

• Surah An-Nur (24:35) — the blessed olive tree. https://quran.com/24/35
• Surah At-Tin (95:1) — "by the fig and the olive." https://quran.com/95
• Surah Al-An'am (6:99) — olives among Allah's signs. https://quran.com/6/99
• Surah Al-An'am (6:141) — olives among blessed produce. https://quran.com/6/141
• Surah An-Nahl (16:11) — olives among what Allah causes to grow. https://quran.com/16/11
• Surah 'Abasa (80:29) — olives in the context of Allah's provision. https://quran.com/80/29

The tree at Mount Sinai in Surah Al-Mu'minun 23:20 is classically identified as the olive but not named. Whether that implied reference adds a seventh mention, and whether al-zayt (the oil) as a separate derivative form should be counted alongside zaytun and zaytunah, are questions of counting method. The honest answer is that the olive is referenced in at least six verses and possibly seven depending on how the tally is drawn. We note the ambiguity because precision matters.

Olive oil in the Sunnah — what the authentic hadith actually say, with gradings

Four sahih narrations carry the substance of the Prophetic teaching on olive oil. A fifth sahih narration ties the olive-oil tradition directly to the black-seed tradition. A sixth narration, widely circulated online, is graded da'if and is flagged at the end of this section so that readers stop propagating it.

Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1851 — narrated by 'Umar ibn al-Khattab

The foundational narration on eating and anointing with olive oil is preserved in Jami' at-Tirmidhi, in Kitab al-At'imah (The Book on Food), Book 25 of the collection.

"Eat olive [oil] and use its oil, for indeed it is from a blessed tree." >— Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1851, Book 25 (Kitab al-At'imah), Chapter 43 ("What Has Been Related About Eating Olive Oil"). Grading: sahih (Darussalam). Narrated by 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet ﷺ. Available at https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:1851

Imam at-Tirmidhi himself noted a consideration in the chain: the hadith is known through 'Abdur-Razzaq from Ma'mar with some chain inconsistency (idtirab), but classical scholars — Imam al-Hakim and al-Dhahabi among them — declared the narration authentic when taken together with its corroborating chains. Darussalam's grading is sahih.

Sunan Ibn Majah 3319 — the parallel narration through 'Umar

The same teaching, through a parallel chain also going back to 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), is recorded in Sunan Ibn Majah, in Kitab al-At'imah (Chapters on Food), Book 29 of the collection, chapter on olive oil.

"Season (your food) with olive oil and anoint yourselves with it, for it comes from a blessed tree." >— Sunan Ibn Majah 3319, Book 29 (Kitab al-At'imah), Chapter 34. Grading: sahih (Darussalam). Narrated by 'Umar ibn al-Khattab from the Prophet ﷺ (isnad: al-Husayn ibn Mahdi → 'Abd al-Razzaq → Ma'mar → Zayd ibn Aslam → Aslam → 'Umar). Available at https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:3319

The pairing matters. The Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah narrations through 'Umar carry the same matn with complementary chains, strengthening the collective transmission record.

Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1852 — narrated by Abu Usayd al-Ansari

A third sahih narration, in the same chapter of Tirmidhi's Kitab al-At'imah, carries the same teaching through an entirely different companion.

"Eat of its oil and use it (the olives), for indeed it is from a blessed tree." >— Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1852, Book 25 (Kitab al-At'imah), Chapter 43. Grading: sahih (Darussalam). Narrated by Abu Usayd al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet ﷺ. Available at https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:1852

Tirmidhi notes that this particular chain is gharib — rare, transmitted through a single route (Sufyan al-Thawri → 'Abdullah bin 'Isa → 'Ata from Syria → Abu Usayd) — but the matn is corroborated by the 'Umar narration, which is why the Darussalam grading is sahih and not weaker. The classical hadith sciences treat corroboration across independent companion chains as a principal strength-of-transmission signal.

Sunan Ibn Majah 3449 — olive oil as the carrier for black seed

A fourth sahih narration sits not in the chapters on food but in the chapters on medicine. It is one of the most concrete preparation instructions in the entire Prophetic medical tradition.

The Prophet ﷺ said of the black seed: "This black seed is a healing for every disease except as-sam" — death — and Ibn Abu 'Atiq instructed that it be crushed, mixed with olive oil, and administered as nasal drops. >— Sunan Ibn Majah 3449, Book 31 (Kitab al-Tibb — Chapters on Medicine), Hadith 14. Grading: sahih (Darussalam). Narrated by Khalid bin Sa'd from 'Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) from the Prophet ﷺ. Available at https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:3449

The narration is the precise parallel to Sahih al-Bukhari 5687 — the foundational black-seed hadith — and it names olive oil explicitly as the carrier. Olive oil is not incidental to the Prophetic pharmacopoeia; it is the vehicle by which another blessed substance is administered. For the full verified treatment of the black-seed tradition, see our companion piece, Is Black Seed in the Quran?.

Sahih al-Bukhari 7546 — the Prophet ﷺ reciting Surah At-Tin in prayer

A fifth narration is less legal than human. Al-Bara' ibn 'Azib (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates hearing the Prophet ﷺ reciting the surah that opens with "by the fig and the olive" in the Isha prayer.

"I heard the Prophet ﷺ reciting wa al-tini wa al-zaytun in the Isha prayer, and I have never heard anybody with a better voice or recitation than his." >— Sahih al-Bukhari 7546. Grading: sahih. Narrated by Al-Bara' ibn 'Azib from the Prophet ﷺ. Available at https://sunnah.com/bukhari:7546

The olive-oil verse is not a museum piece. It was recited aloud by the Prophet ﷺ in nightly prayer, and the companions remembered the sound of it decades later.

A weak narration to avoid — Sunan Ibn Majah 3320

One olive-oil hadith circulates widely on wellness blogs, Islamic ecommerce sites, and even reputable charity portals. It reads:

"Eat (olive) oil and anoint yourselves with it, for it is blessed." >— Sunan Ibn Majah 3320, Book 29 (Kitab al-At'imah), Chapter 34. Narrated by Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet ﷺ (isnad: 'Abdullah bin Sa'eed → his grandfather → Abu Hurairah).

This is not the 'Umar narration at Ibn Majah 3319. It is the adjacent hadith, numbered 3320, and Darussalam grades it *da'if* — weak. The wording is almost identical to the authentic narrations, which is why it travels so easily; but the chain does not carry the strength of the 'Umar and Abu Usayd transmissions. The authentic substance of the teaching — eat olive oil, anoint with it, the olive is a blessed tree — is already fully preserved in Tirmidhi 1851, Ibn Majah 3319, and Tirmidhi 1852. There is no need to rely on the weak narration, and doing so undermines the hadith discipline that readers have a right to expect. We name and flag it here so that it can stop being quoted. URL, for reference only: https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:3320.

Ibn al-Qayyim's treatment of olive oil in Al-Tibb al-Nabawi (14th century)

The first major synthesis of Prophetic teaching on medicine with the classical medical tradition was produced by Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751 AH / 1350 CE), student of Ibn Taymiyyah and author of Zad al-Ma'ad, of which Al-Tibb al-Nabawi — Medicine of the Prophet — is a section. The standard modern English edition, still in print, is Penelope Johnstone's Medicine of the Prophet, published by The Islamic Texts Society in Cambridge in 1998.

Ibn al-Qayyim's entry on olive oil (zayt) takes the authentic hadith as its anchor and proceeds to catalogue the substance within the Galenic humoral framework then dominant across the Islamic world — the same framework the Muslim Golden Age physicians had inherited from Greek medicine and refined over centuries of clinical experience. He classified olive oil as warming and moistening in moderate degrees, an intermediate category which in classical humoral theory made it broadly useful rather than narrowly specialized. He recorded its internal uses as a softener and as an aid to digestion, its external applications to skin and hair in direct fulfilment of the Prophetic instruction iddahinu bihi — "anoint yourselves with it" — and its role as the carrier for other Prophetic remedies, most notably the black seed preparation that appears in Sahih al-Bukhari 5687 and Sunan Ibn Majah 3449. Olive oil in Ibn al-Qayyim's handling is not a standalone cure; it is the vehicle of a pharmacopoeia.

We paraphrase rather than quote directly here. A verbatim rendering from Ibn al-Qayyim requires an exact page reference in a specific edition, and that reference belongs to the physical volume in hand. Readers with access to the Johnstone 1998 edition will find the olive-oil material in the chapters on single substances; the Islamic Texts Society catalogue page, with ISBN 9780946621224, is at https://its.org.uk/catalogue/medicine-of-the-prophet-paperback/.

Read Ibn al-Qayyim on his own terms. He was not writing a 21st-century pharmacology manual. He was writing a synthesis of Prophetic teaching and the best medical theory available in 14th-century Damascus. That framing is the reason the text is still read today as a primary source on classical Islamic medical thought.

Ibn Sina's entry on olive oil in the Canon of Medicine, Book 2 (11th century)

Three centuries before Ibn al-Qayyim, the Persian polymath Ibn Sina (Avicenna, d. 1037 CE) completed Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb — The Canon of Medicine — around 1025 CE. The Canon is a five-book medical encyclopedia that became the foundational medical textbook of both the Islamic world and, through Latin translation, European universities. It remained standard teaching material in Montpellier, Padua, and other continental universities into the 17th century.

Book 2 of the Canon is the Materia Medica — an alphabetically arranged catalogue of approximately 800 simple drugs of plant, animal, and mineral origin. For each entry, Ibn Sina followed a standardized structure: name and synonyms, temperament (hot/cold, dry/moist), geographical and botanical description, method of selection and preparation, properties, and therapeutic uses. Olive oil (zayt) is among the catalogued drugs, with separate entries distinguishing grades of oil that anticipate the modern grading ladder. Ibn Sina named and discussed al-zayt al-anfaq — oil pressed from unripe, green olives, described as astringent and tonic — separately from oil pressed from ripe olives, and again separately from oil that had been aged. The sophistication of the classification is striking from a millennium's distance: what Ibn Sina records as al-anfaq corresponds broadly to what a modern producer would call early-harvest, high-polyphenol extra-virgin oil.

In Book 2 he classified olive oil as warming and moistening in temperament. He recorded its internal uses for digestion, its external applications for muscular and joint conditions, its role as the carrier for numerous compound preparations, and the distinctions he drew between oils of different freshness and provenance. The standard modern English rendering of Book 2 is Laleh Bakhtiar's edition, adapted from the translations of O. Cameron Gruner and Mazar H. Shah: The Canon of Medicine, Volume 2: Natural Pharmaceuticals (Kazi Publications, 1999; ISBN 9781567448122). Again, we deliberately paraphrase rather than quote verbatim, for the same reason as with Ibn al-Qayyim — a direct quotation from a classical pharmaceutical entry requires an exact page reference in a specific edition. The Kazi Publications set is catalogued at https://www.kazi.org/product/canon-of-medicine-complete-5-volume-set/; a freely available Hamdard Arabic-English edition of Book II is at https://www.rjwhelan.co.nz/articles/pdf/CANON-Book-II-Hamdard.pdf; an Internet Archive scan of Volume 2 is at https://archive.org/details/the-canon-of-medicine-volume-2.

The lineage is worth stating as a single sentence. A food attested in the Quran was instructed by the Prophet ﷺ to be eaten and used on the skin; was catalogued in the 11th century into the central pharmaceutical reference of the Islamic world with grade distinctions anticipating modern extra-virgin; was re-synthesized in the 14th century by Ibn al-Qayyim within Prophetic medicine; was taught in European universities through the 17th century; and is still the subject of peer-reviewed research in 2025. That is a 1,400-year clinical and cultural record. It is not a wellness fad.

What modern peer-reviewed research has actually studied — with the firewall intact

Olive oil is one of the most-studied foods in the modern nutrition literature. What follows is a careful summary of what researchers have studied and reported. It is not a claim that any product cures, treats, or prevents any disease. Nothing below should be read in that register.

The most-cited randomized trial is the PREDIMED study, re-analyzed and republished in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2018 by Estruch and colleagues. The trial randomized approximately 7,400 participants at high cardiovascular risk to a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with mixed nuts, or a control low-fat diet. The authors reported that participants assigned to the two Mediterranean-diet arms experienced fewer major cardiovascular events than those in the control arm. That is the direction and the size of the finding. It is a dietary-pattern result, and it should be read as such rather than as evidence that olive oil alone causes outcomes independent of the broader diet.

A 2025 systematic review in Nutrients by Sarapis, Flynn and colleagues — "Exploring the Benefits of Extra Virgin Olive Oil on Cardiovascular Health Enhancement and Disease Prevention" — consolidated the 2020s evidence on extra-virgin olive oil specifically, with particular attention to polyphenol content as the apparent active fraction. A 2023 narrative review in the same journal by Flynn, Tierney and Itsiopoulos — "Is Extra Virgin Olive Oil the Critical Ingredient Driving the Health Benefits of a Mediterranean Diet?" — takes up the epistemic question head-on: can the cardiovascular association be attributed to olive oil specifically, or does it attach to the dietary pattern as a whole? The review's own framing of that question is the honest posture.

At the molecular level, two phenolic compounds in extra-virgin olive oil attract the majority of the research interest: hydroxytyrosol and oleocanthal. A 2023 comprehensive systematic review in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences by Romani, Gorzynik-Debicka and colleagues catalogued the investigational work on oleocanthal in particular. The European Food Safety Authority has authorized a health claim at the compositional level — olive oil polyphenols contribute to the protection of blood lipids from oxidative stress — at a threshold of 5 mg of hydroxytyrosol and its derivatives per 20 g of oil. The threshold itself is a useful benchmark when evaluating producer claims.

For epistemic balance, a 2024 commentary in The Journal of Nutrition — "Compared with What? The Illusion of Olive Oil as 'Heart-Healthy'" by Kahleova, Barnard and colleagues — flags methodological caveats in the comparative diet literature and argues that some of the olive-oil findings are better read as "less bad than the comparator" rather than as active benefit in absolute terms. Citing the counterpoint is deliberate. A Muslim customer reading this article has the right to a balanced view of the evidence, not a one-sided one.

The pattern across these reviews is consistent. Researchers report associations and mechanisms of interest. Reviewers caution that attribution is harder than headlines suggest. That is exactly the posture a premium olive-oil seller should adopt: the historical record — Quran, hadith, Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn Sina — stands on its own as tradition; the modern evidence is a separate, still-evolving conversation; and the two should not be conflated.

What to look for when choosing olive oil

If the tradition has earned your interest, the practical question becomes how to buy a bottle that honours it. A few compositional facts are worth knowing before you spend. None of these are health claims.

Extra virgin, not virgin, not refined. Extra-virgin olive oil is the least-processed grade, cold-pressed mechanically, with free acidity of 0.8% or less, and with the natural polyphenols substantially intact. Virgin is a step down in acidity tolerance and polyphenol preservation. Refined olive oil has been chemically treated to neutralize defects and retains little of the polyphenol profile the modern literature studies. At the extra-virgin grade, you are buying the fruit; below it, you are buying a commodity oil.

Cold-pressed, mechanically extracted. The extraction method matters. Polyphenols — hydroxytyrosol, oleocanthal, oleuropein — degrade under heat. A cold-pressed oil, meaning extraction at or near ambient temperature without chemical solvents, preserves the compositional profile.

Single-estate or single-cultivar. Single-estate oils trace to one farm; single-cultivar oils trace to one olive variety (Picual, Arbequina, Nabali, Souri, Chemlali, Koroneiki). Both preserve terroir and both make traceability possible. Blends obscure both.

Harvest date on the label. Olive oil is not wine. It does not improve with age. A bottle bottled within a few months of harvest — and consumed within eighteen months of it — is the fresh profile that the tradition and the literature point to. Look for an explicit harvest date, not only a best-before.

Dark glass or tin. Light and oxygen oxidize polyphenols. Dark glass (dark green, amber) or tin protects the oil. Clear bottles on a bright shelf are a warning sign.

Origin. The classical olive regions in the Muslim world — Palestine, Syria, Andalusia (Spain), Tunisia, Morocco, parts of Anatolia — are the lands where the trees have grown continuously for a thousand years and more. Many of these oils are also superb by every objective criterion. A named country, a named region, and a named mill are signals of a producer who knows what they are selling.

From the LAYNUR collection

We built this store around products with a documented place in the Islamic tradition, and olive oil is the category where the documentation runs deepest — named in the Quran, instructed in the Prophetic ﷺ example, catalogued by Ibn Sina, synthesized by Ibn al-Qayyim, and still studied today. Our extra-virgin olive oil is single-estate, cold-pressed within 48 hours of harvest, bottled in dark glass, and accompanied by documented origin and a harvest date you can read. We sell it at the grade Ibn Sina would have recognised as al-zayt al-anfaq — pressed early, pressed cleanly, kept intact.

• Premium single-estate extra virgin olive oil — cold-pressed within 48 hours of harvest, dark glass, documented origin, harvest date on the label. The form the hadith of 'Umar and the Canon of Ibn Sina describe. (Product slug pending catalogue launch.)
• The full Prophetic Pantry collection — olive oil alongside the other foods the Quran names by surah: dates, figs, and honey, with black seed for the oil's historical companion in the Prophet's ﷺ pharmacopoeia. (Collection slug pending catalogue launch.)

For a companion piece on the other anchor of Prophetic medicine, see Is Black Seed in the Quran? — the same citation discipline applied to Nigella sativa, with olive oil as the carrier in Bukhari 5687 and Ibn Majah 3449.

Frequently asked questions

Is olive oil mentioned in the Quran?

Yes. The olive tree is called "a blessed tree" (shajaratin mubarakatin) in Surah An-Nur 24:35, sworn upon by Allah in Surah At-Tin 95:1, and classically identified as the Sinai tree in Surah Al-Mu'minun 23:20 "producing oil and relish for those who eat." Olives are also referenced in Surah Al-An'am (6:99 and 6:141), Surah An-Nahl (16:11), and Surah 'Abasa (80:29). The tree, the fruit, or the oil is referenced in at least six verses.

What hadith mention olive oil, and are they authentic?

The most-cited authentic narrations are Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1851 (narrated by 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him), Sunan Ibn Majah 3319 (the parallel narration through 'Umar), and Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1852 (narrated by Abu Usayd al-Ansari, may Allah be pleased with him) — all graded sahih by Darussalam. A fourth sahih narration, Sunan Ibn Majah 3449, names olive oil as the carrier for the Prophet's ﷺ black-seed nasal-drop preparation. The widely-shared Sunan Ibn Majah 3320 is graded da'if (weak) and should not be cited.

Did the Prophet ﷺ recommend eating olive oil?

Yes. The authentic hadith of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), preserved in Tirmidhi 1851 and Ibn Majah 3319 and graded sahih by Darussalam, records the Prophet's ﷺ instruction to eat olive oil and anoint with it, "for it comes from a blessed tree." The phrase echoes the Quranic description in Surah An-Nur 24:35.

What did Ibn Sina say about olive oil?

Ibn Sina (d. 1037 CE) catalogued olive oil in Book 2 of his Canon of Medicine, the Materia Medica, among approximately 800 simple drugs. He distinguished between oils of different grades — including al-zayt al-anfaq, pressed from unripe olives, described as astringent and tonic — anticipating the modern extra-virgin-to-refined grading ladder by a millennium. He classified olive oil as warming and moistening in temperament and recorded internal, external, and carrier uses.

Why is the olive tree called "blessed" in Islam?

The Quran calls the olive shajaratin mubarakatin — "a blessed tree" — in Surah An-Nur 24:35. Classical tafsir (Ibn Kathir, al-Qurtubi) points to the olive's unique combination of long life, yielding of both food and oil, growth in arid lands, and integration into the Prophetic example. The same adjective mubarakatin is used in the Quran for sacred places, sacred nights, and sacred persons.

Is olive oil halal by default?

Yes. Olive oil is a plant-derived product, pressed mechanically from the fruit of the olive tree, and is halal without needing specific certification. Certification becomes relevant only when olive oil is blended into compound products with other ingredients that themselves require verification.

How did Muslims historically use olive oil in medicine?

Classical physicians — Ibn Sina in the 11th century, Ibn al-Qayyim in the 14th — used olive oil internally as a softener and aid to digestion, externally for skin, hair, and muscular-joint complaints in direct fulfilment of the hadith instruction to "anoint yourselves with it," and as the carrier for other remedies, including the black-seed nasal-drop preparation described in Sahih al-Bukhari 5687 and Sunan Ibn Majah 3449.

Is extra virgin olive oil "better" from an Islamic perspective?

The Quran and the hadith do not specify a grade. Extra-virgin is a modern designation for the least-processed oil, cold-pressed, with free acidity of 0.8% or less, and with the natural polyphenols substantially preserved. Choosing it is a matter of quality and authenticity consistent with the Islamic emphasis on ihsan — excellence — rather than a religious requirement.

Sources

Quran

1. Surah An-Nur (24:35), Sahih International translation. "Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth…lit from [the oil of] a blessed olive tree, neither of the east nor of the west…" Available at https://quran.com/24/35
2. Surah At-Tin (95:1), Sahih International translation. "By the fig and the olive." Available at https://quran.com/95
3. Surah Al-Mu'minun (23:20), Sahih International translation. "And [We produce] a tree issuing from Mount Sinai which produces oil and food [i.e., relish] for those who eat." Available at https://quran.com/23/20
4. Additional olive references in the Quran: Surah Al-An'am (6:99) https://quran.com/6/99 ; Surah Al-An'am (6:141) https://quran.com/6/141 ; Surah An-Nahl (16:11) https://quran.com/16/11 ; Surah 'Abasa (80:29) https://quran.com/80/29.

Hadith (authentic)

1. Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1851, Book 25 (Kitab al-At'imah — The Book on Food), Chapter 43. Grading: sahih (Darussalam). Narrator: 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet ﷺ. Available at https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:1851
2. Sunan Ibn Majah 3319, Book 29 (Kitab al-At'imah — Chapters on Food), Chapter 34. Grading: sahih (Darussalam). Narrator: 'Umar ibn al-Khattab from the Prophet ﷺ. Isnad: al-Husayn ibn Mahdi → 'Abd al-Razzaq → Ma'mar → Zayd ibn Aslam → Aslam → 'Umar. Available at https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:3319
3. Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1852, Book 25 (Kitab al-At'imah), Chapter 43. Grading: sahih (Darussalam); Tirmidhi notes the chain is gharib but corroborated by the 'Umar narration. Narrator: Abu Usayd al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet ﷺ. Available at https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:1852
4. Sunan Ibn Majah 3449, Book 31 (Kitab al-Tibb — Chapters on Medicine), Hadith 14. Grading: sahih (Darussalam). Narrator: Khalid bin Sa'd from 'Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) from the Prophet ﷺ. Available at https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:3449
5. Sahih al-Bukhari 7546. Grading: sahih. Narrator: Al-Bara' ibn 'Azib (may Allah be pleased with him) — the Prophet ﷺ reciting Surah At-Tin in the Isha prayer. Available at https://sunnah.com/bukhari:7546

Hadith (weak — flagged, do not cite)

1. Sunan Ibn Majah 3320, Book 29 (Kitab al-At'imah), Chapter 34. Grading: *da'if* (weak, Darussalam). Narrator: Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet ﷺ. Cited here only so that readers stop propagating it approvingly. URL for reference: https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:3320

Classical Islamic scholarship

1. Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751 AH / 1350 CE). Medicine of the Prophet (Al-Tibb al-Nabawi). Translated by Penelope Johnstone. Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1998. ISBN 9780946621224. Publisher catalogue page: https://its.org.uk/catalogue/medicine-of-the-prophet-paperback/ — Entry on al-zayt (olive oil). Fons Vitae US distribution: https://fonsvitae.com/product/medicine-of-the-prophet/. Wellcome Collection: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/nb6eeez4
2. Ibn Sina / Avicenna (d. 1037 CE). The Canon of Medicine, Volume 2: Natural Pharmaceuticals (Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, Book 2 — Materia Medica). Adapted by Laleh Bakhtiar from the translations of O. Cameron Gruner and Mazar H. Shah; correlated by Jay R. Crook. Chicago: Kazi Publications, 1999. ISBN 9781567448122. Publisher: https://www.kazi.org/product/canon-of-medicine-complete-5-volume-set/ — Entry on zayt (olive oil), including the grade distinction al-zayt al-anfaq. Hamdard Arabic-English edition of Book II (free PDF): https://www.rjwhelan.co.nz/articles/pdf/CANON-Book-II-Hamdard.pdf. Internet Archive scan of Volume 2: https://archive.org/details/the-canon-of-medicine-volume-2. Wellcome metadata: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/eb7r5m3j
3. Ibn Kathir (d. 774 AH / 1373 CE). Tafsir al-Qur'an al-'Azim — classical Sunni commentary on Surah An-Nur 24:35 and the identification of the Sinai tree of Surah Al-Mu'minun 23:20 as the olive. English summary via QuranX: https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Kathir/24.35

Modern academic (peer-reviewed)

1. Estruch, R., Ros, E., Salas-Salvadó, J., et al. (2018). "Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet Supplemented with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil or Nuts." New England Journal of Medicine, 378(25), e34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1800389. Open access: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1800389
2. Sarapis, K., Flynn, M., et al. (2025). "Exploring the Benefits of Extra Virgin Olive Oil on Cardiovascular Health Enhancement and Disease Prevention: A Systematic Review." Nutrients, 17(11), 1843. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17111843. Open access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/17/11/1843. PubMed Central mirror: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12158199/
3. Flynn, M. M., Tierney, A., Itsiopoulos, C. (2023). "Is Extra Virgin Olive Oil the Critical Ingredient Driving the Health Benefits of a Mediterranean Diet? A Narrative Review." Nutrients, 15(13), 2916. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15132916. Open access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/13/2916. PubMed Central mirror: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10346407/
4. Romani, A., Gorzynik-Debicka, M., et al. (2023). "Oleocanthal, an Antioxidant Phenolic Compound in Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO): A Comprehensive Systematic Review of Its Potential in Inflammation and Cancer." International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24(24), 17518. PubMed Central: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10741130/. PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38136231/
5. Kahleova, H., Barnard, N. D., et al. (2024). "Compared with What? The Illusion of Olive Oil as 'Heart-Healthy'." The Journal of Nutrition. Available at https://jn.nutrition.org/article/S0022-3166(24)00101-9/fulltext

Reference / encyclopedic

1. "The Canon of Medicine." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canon_of_Medicine — for general background on Ibn Sina's Canon and its transmission history. Used only for non-contested framing; substantive claims anchor to the primary sources above.

This article is for educational and historical interest. It is not medical advice. Consult a qualified physician before starting any dietary regimen, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, on prescription medication, or managing a chronic condition.