Hadith 18

Commentary

1. The Prophet's practice was to urinate in a squatting position. But in the above-mentioned incident, he urinated while standing. Various rational and coherent explanations have been given to explain this Hadīth. For instance, some scholars have suggested that the Prophet ﷺ urinated while standing in order to protect himself from the filth of the public garbage dump. Had he urinated in a squatting position above the dump, his clothing or his body would likely have been either smeared with filth, or sullied with urine that splashed back from the refuse. The latter possibility was likely since urine would have fallen close by and returned toward his feet. Other scholars have said that the Prophet ﷺ was suffering from knee pain, and thus it was difficult for him to urinate from a squatting position - this explanation is corroborated by a Hadīth that is related in Sunan Al-Bayhaqi (Sunan Al-Bayhaqi Al-Kubra: 1/101); it should be noted, however, that that narration is weak. 2. The intent of the chapter is to show that if one is confident that one will not bother others with offensive sounds and smells, one does not need to go far in order to urinate; rather, under such circumstances, it is sufficient to simply screen oneself, so that others cannot see him.