Select a passage to highlight it. Click or tap a highlight to remove it.
Text and translation
English translation
322. 'Abdullāh bin 'Umar said: "People say: 'When you sit to relieve yourself, do not face the Qiblah.' But one day I climbed up onto the roof of our house, and I saw the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ sitting on two bricks (to relieve himself), facing the direction of Baitul-Maqdis (Jerusalem)." This
is a Hadith narrated by Yazid bin Hārūn. (Sahih)
Your commentary saves automatically in this browser, separate from the published commentary. It stays private unless you include it in a shared study file.
Commentary
This was the apartment of the Mother of the Believers Hafsah ﷺ the sister of the narrator of the Hadith 'Abdullāh bin 'Umar ﷺ. (see Bukhārī: 148) The narrator described the house as his own because it was his sister's house.
The words 'I saw the Messenger of Allāh' does not mean that Ibn 'Umar saw the Prophet ﷺ without a screen covering him. The fact of the matter is that the toilet wall being not very high he was able to see the Prophet's head, which indicated that the Prophet ﷺ was sitting with his back towards the House of Allāh and face towards the Baitul-Maqdis (Jerusalem). As for the mud bricks, Ibn 'Umar already knew that they were there. (See Fathul-Bārī (Eng.) p. 28/1).