What is the toilet manners in islam? What does islam say about toilet?
Relief in the toilet is a comfort and reason for thanking the Lord.
The Almighty, who created His servants, has provided them the ways of ease and comfort for them to meet all their needs. The following story alone is enough to illustrate us how thankful we should be over the comfort of being able to find relief in the toilet.
The story goes that a sultan asks one of his viziers, renowned for his wisdom and intellect:
‘What is one thing on earth that gives man the greatest comfort?’
‘Relief in the toilet’, answers the vizier. Unhappy with the answer, the sultan sends the vizier away.
Sometime later, the sultan becomes constipated. So intense was his constipation that he could not even manage to urinate. With his stomach swollen like a drum and almost about to explode, he finds himself in unbearable pain. He takes all the medication given by the doctor but to no avail. Then suddenly, he remembers the words of his vizier.
‘How right he was’, he says to himself and calls the vizier once again.
‘I beg you to pray for me…and find me a cure so that I am saved from this pain’, he says.
‘I will pray for you, my sultan, and find you a cure’, says the vizier, ‘only on the condition that you give me half your treasures if you indeed do end up being cured.’
Helpless, the sultan accepts the vizier’s deal; after all, what good was there in wealth without health? The vizier then prays for the sultan and hands him some medicine. A short time later, the sultan finds himself cured and once again able to go to the toilet.
Thanking the vizier, the sultan then hands him the keys of one half of his treasures as promised. But the wise vizier simply looks at the sultan and says:
‘What kind of a treasure is this, my sultan, that it can be traded for just a relief in the toilet? I am in no need of such a treasure…you can have it all!’
Indeed, to give us a lesson of wisdom, each time the Beloved Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- went to the toilet, he would say beforehand:
Allahumma inni audhu bika mina’l-khubthi wa’l-khabaith
‘O Allah! I seek refuge with You from the wicked and noxious things.’ (Muslim, Hayd, 122)
And when he came out of the privy, he would pray saying:
Alhamdu’li-llahi’lladhi adhhaba anni’l-adha wa afani
‘Praise be to Allah who has removed harm from me and kept me in health.’ (Ibn Majah, Taharah, 10)
What should we pay attention to in the toilet?
Toilet hygiene is directly related to cleanliness of both the body and the clothes. It is therefore very important.
While entering the toilet, we should not have anything on us that have pieces from the Holy Qur’an written on it.
When entering and exiting the toilet, we should read the prayers that the Beloved Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- has taught us.
We should enter the toilet with the left foot and exit it with the right.
We must not urinate whilst standing. That is harmful for our health and hygiene. Instead, we should crouch while relieving ourselves.
One must not read anything, speak, sing, whistle, say or respond to a greeting and mention the name of Allah whilst in the toilet. One should exit immediately once done.
In a situation where it is necessary to see to the need in the outdoors, one must find a place remote from people and cover up as much as possible. One must neither face nor turn his back towards the direction of Qiblah while relieving himself.
When it becomes necessary to see to the need in the outdoors, one must prefer spots that people are least likely to walk pass.
One must refrain from things like spitting or blowing the noise inside the toilet that will put off people who come afterwards. We must leave the toilet in the condition that we ourselves would like to find it; even if that might not actually be the condition we have found it in the first place.
Source; ISLAMIC ETIQUETTE, Faruk KANGER – Lokman HELVACI, Erkam Publications
Good Manners Towards Allah Almighty
Good Manners Towards Our Prophet
