The Prohibition of Drinking from the Cracked & Chipped Part of a Cup
Taken from
‘Silsilah Ahadeeth As-Saheehah’
By the
Muhaddith, Shaykh, Allamaa’
Muhammad Nasir uddeen al-Albaani
Translated by
Abbas Abu Yahya
From Abu Saeed al Khudri from the Prophet,
“ نهى عن الشرب من ثلمة القدح , و أن ينفخ في الشراب “ .
That he forbade from drinking from the cracked and chipped part of the pot and that a person should not blow in the drink.’
[Collected by Abu Dawood, Ibn Hibban, Ahmad and Al-Albaani graded it Hasan in Silsilah Saheehah no. 388]
From Abu Hurairah who said:
“ نهي أن يشرب من كسر القدح “ .
‘It is prohibited to drink from the broken part of the pot.’
[Collected by Tabarani in ‘Mujam al-Awsat’ & Al-Albaani said ‘and this hadeeth is Saheeh, its Isnaad is Saheeh its narrators are trustworthy, narrators of Muslim]
Ibn al-Atheer said:
‘This means the place where the crack is. It is prohibited from this because a person drinking cannot place his mouth upon that place, and perhaps – due to the crack- he spills the water on to his garment and hands.
It has been said: this is because the cracked and chipped part cannot be cleaned completely when the container is washed.
There is a wording of the hadeeth that the cracked and chipped part is a sitting area for the Shaytaan, and what they intended was that it could not be cleaned.’
I (Al-Albaani) say: perhaps the last explanation – not able to clean it- is stronger.
This is because the first explanation – that a person cannot place his mouth on the cracked part- only applies if the crack or chip is large. Since now it is established due to microscopes that a crack or chipping – whether it is big or small- is a place where germs and harmful microbes collect.
Normal washing of a container will not purify it, in fact they could increase in that place.
Therefore, Allaah the Wise Legislator prohibited from drinking from that place, fearing that some of it may flow with the drink into the person’s inside and he is harmed by it. So, the prohibition is medical precision.
And Allah knows best.
As for the wording which is mentioned by Ibn al-Atheer:
‘Sitting area for the Shaytaan’, then I have not encountered it except with the wording: ‘Indeed the Shaytaan drinks from it’ and it has been researched in Da’eefah no. 654
[Silsilah Saheehah no. 2689]
