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It was narrated from Abu Ayyub al-Ansari that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “When you go to the outhouse, do not face towards the qiblah or turn your back towards it; rather face east or west.” Abu Ayyub said: Then we came to Syria, and we found lavatories that had been built facing towards the qiblah, so we would turn away, and we would seek forgiveness of Allah (may He be exalted)..
Commentary :
The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) was keen to teach his ummah all the details of religion, which included teaching his ummah the etiquette of relieving themselves and of entering bathrooms and outhouses.
In this hadith, the Sahabi Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) forbade the one who wants to relieve himself by urinating or defecating from facing towards the qiblah, the direction of the Kaaba, or turning his back towards it, out of respect and veneration for it, for that is the direction that the Muslims face in the prayer; they turn towards it from every place, and that direction represents the sacred House of Allah.
The word translated here as outhouse originally referred to low-lying land, as they used to go there to relieve themselves, then the word began to be used to refer to the action, not the place, because they did not want to refer explicitly to the action.
The words “rather face east or west” mean: face towards the east or the west when you relieve yourselves. This is addressed to the people of Madinah and others for whom the qiblah is in the same direction [namely, south]. As for those for whom the qiblah is towards the east or west, what may be understood is that they are instructed to turn in a different direction, so that they will not be facing towards the qiblah or turning their backs towards it. Then Abu Ayyub (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Then we came to Syria – which now includes the modern countries of Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon – and we found lavatories. A lavatory is a place like a small room that is allocated for relieving oneself. The people of Syria had built these lavatories facing towards the qiblah unintentionally, or because they did not know of the prohibition on doing that, or because they thought that the prohibition did not include these structures. Abu Ayyub (may Allah be pleased with him) said: so we would turn away, and we would seek forgiveness of Allah. In other words, we would try to orient our bodies away from the direction of the qiblah as much as possible, and as much as the structure allowed, then we would seek forgiveness of Allah in case we committed some infraction. This is an example of the perfect faith of the Sahabah (may Allah be pleased with them), as striving on its own is sufficient in order to avoid this infraction that one might feel ill at ease with if one did not do it. But they still sought forgiveness, so as to be on the safe side, and because they believed in the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him). This seeking of forgiveness would be done outside the lavatories, not inside, because of the prohibition on mentioning the name of Allah (may He be exalted) in outhouses and places where one relieves oneself. This may indicate that the ruling on facing the direction of the qiblah inside the structures built for that purpose is the same as when relieving oneself in the open, without any difference. This is the view of Abu Ayyub (may Allah be pleased with him). But it was narrated from Ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) that this prohibition applies only to open spaces, so if there is some kind of screen between the individual and the qiblah, there is nothing wrong with it. In al-Sahihayn, it is narrated that Ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I climbed on the roof of my sister Hafsah’s house, and I saw the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) sitting to relieve himself, facing towards Syria, with his back towards the qiblah. .