What is the toilet manners in islam? How do you enter and leave the toilet in islam? What does islam say about toilet manners?
The following are recommended (mandub) for a person who goes to the bathroom:
- a) He should not go to the bathroom with something on which the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad is written. Anas (ra) said: “When the Prophet went to the toilet, he would take off his ring.”[1] This is because his ring had the inscription “Muḥammadun Rasulullāh (Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah)”. However, if such an inscription is hidden or it is feared that the item with the inscription may fall, it is no longer accepted as appropriate.
- b) Reciting the following prayer that the Prophet recited before entering the toilet:
“(O Allah, I seek refuge in You from impurity and impure things.)”
After that, enter with the left foot and exit with the right foot. This is the opposite practice while entering and leaving other places such as the house. In other places, the practice is to enter with the right foot and exits with the left foot.
After exiting the toilet, the following supplication is recited:
“(O Allah! I ask for your forgiveness. Praise be to Allah, who removed the hurtful things from me and gave me health.)”
- c) It is not permissible to recite the Qur’an, to speak in the bathroom, and to respond when someone greets you.
- d) In open terrains, one should be out of sight or cover himself/herself with something.
- e) It is makrūḥ taḥriman (undesirable close to the prohibited) to face the front, or one’s back toward the qibla while relieving oneself in an open or closed place. The Prophet said: “When you go to the privy, neither turn your face nor your back towards the qiblah at the time of excretion or urination, but turn towards the east or the west.”[2] The majority of jurists, except the Ḥanafis, say that this undesirability does not exist in closed toilets. The evidence they rely on is a hadith narrated by Jabir (ra).[3]
- f) One should avoid relieving oneself in holes where insects live, in places such as roads, canopies, under trees, and where people pass and sit to rest. Prophet (saw) said, “Be on your guard against three things which provoke cursing: relieving oneself in the watering places, on the thoroughfares, and in the shade.”[4]
- g) One should not urinate in still or running water and should avoid urinating while standing unless there is an excuse. All these acts are makrūḥ.
- h) After relieving oneself, the cleaning should be done with the left hand, and hands should be washed with soap or something similar after exiting the bathroom.[5]
[1] Abū Dawūd, Ṭaḥāra, 10; al-Tirmidhī, Libās, 17; Ibn Maja, Ṭaḥāra, 11.
[2] Al-Tirmidhī, Ṭaḥāra, 6, Buyūʿ, 41; Abū Dawūd, Ṭaḥāra, 4; Ahmed Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad, II, 250, III, 487, V, 421.
[3] Abū Dawūd, Ṭaḥāra, 4; Ibn Maja, Ṭaḥāra, 18; Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, V, 415, 430, 438, 439.
[4] Muslim, Ṭaḥāra, 68; Abū Dawūd, Ṭaḥāra, 14; Ibn Maja, Ṭaḥāra, 21.
[5] For more information, see Ibn Abidīn, ibid., I, 316-318; al-Shirazī, ibid, I, 25; Ibn Qudāmah, ibid, I, 162-168; al-Zuhaylī, ibid, I, 202 ff.
Source: Basic Islamic Principles (ʿilmi ḥāl) According to the Four Sunni Schools With Evidence From The Sources of Islamic Law, Prof. Hamdi Döndüren, Erkam Publications