And from him (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “None of you should drink while standing.” [Related by Muslim] [Bulugh al-Maram: 1246]
“And also from Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) it is narrated that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: None of you should ever drink while standing.” [Muslim]
Takhrij: [Muslim, al-Ashribah: 116], [Bulugh al-Maram: 1246]. See [Tuhfat al-Ashraf 89/11]
Benefits: In Sahih Muslim, along with this hadith, these words are also found: “Whoever forgets, let him vomit.” In Sahih Muslim, it is narrated from Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (ﷺ) forbade drinking while standing. Qatadah says: We asked Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) what the ruling is on eating (while standing), and he said: “That is worse and more evil.” The reason for this may be that eating requires standing for longer than drinking does. [Fath]
➋ The medical reason for the prohibition of drinking while standing is that when a person drinks while sitting, he generally drinks calmly, which reduces the risk of choking; likewise, the possibility of pain in the throat, the food passage, the stomach and the liver is reduced. Whereas drinking while standing, due to haste, increases the likelihood of these ailments. Vomiting is expected to relieve these ailments, because it brings up the retained humour which cannot flow out without vomiting. One reason for the prohibition has been stated by the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) himself.
Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) says that the Prophet (ﷺ) saw a man drinking while standing, and said: “Vomit.” He asked: “Why?” The Prophet (ﷺ) said: “Would you like a cat to drink with you?” He said: “No.” He said: “Someone who is worse than that has drunk with you: the devil (has drunk with you).” [Musnad Ahmad 7990]
The narrators of this hadith’s chain are the narrators of the two Shaykhs (al-Bukhari and Muslim), except Abu Ziyad; Yahya bin Ma’in declared him trustworthy (thiqah), and Abu Hatim said he is Salih al-Hadith. [Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah 175]
➌ In contrast to these hadiths, that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) drank while standing is established by authentic hadiths. Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: “I gave the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) Zamzam to drink, and he drank while standing.” [Bukhari 5617, Muslim al-Ashribah 117]
Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) prayed Zuhr, then sat in al-Rahbah in Kufa to attend to the needs of the people, until the time of Asr came, and water was brought to him. He washed his face and hands; the narrator also mentioned the head and feet. Then he drank the remaining water while standing, and said: “Some people dislike drinking while standing, although the Prophet (ﷺ) did what I have done.” [Bukhari 5616]
Kabshah (may Allah be pleased with her) says that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) came to her, and drank while standing from a water skin that was hanging. [Tirmidhi / al-Ashribah, Sahih al-Tirmidhi 1542]
Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) says: “In the time of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) we would eat while walking and drink while standing.” [Tirmidhi / al-Ashribah, Sahih al-Tirmidhi 1533]
In the Muwatta it is recorded that Umar, Uthman and Ali (may Allah be pleased with them) used to drink while standing, and Sa’d and Aisha (may Allah be pleased with them) also did not consider it a fault. [Fath al-Bari 86/10]
➍ When the hadiths of prohibition and permission are both established from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) through authentic chains, how then is one to act upon them? The scholars have adopted various approaches in this matter.
First approach: Hafiz Ibn Hazm (may Allah have mercy on him) says that the hadiths of prohibition abrogated the hadiths of permission, because the basic principle regarding things is permissibility. Therefore, drinking while standing was permissible earlier; when the Prophet (ﷺ) forbade it, drinking while standing became forbidden, because the basic meaning of a prohibition is this. However, the reality is that abrogation is not established merely by possibility; for it, knowledge of the chronology is necessary. This is not known here; rather, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) drank while standing during the Farewell Pilgrimage. Therefore, this view does not appear correct. Drinking while standing does not make a person sinful, though he certainly misses out on reward, whereas drinking while sitting earns reward and fulfils the Sunnah.
Second approach: The prohibition in the hadiths about drinking while standing is a prohibition of disapproval (nahy tanzihi). Therefore, the command to vomit is also to be understood as recommendation (istihbab), meaning the reward lies in vomiting. The evidence for this is that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), despite forbidding it, himself drank while standing, and this shows that drinking while standing is not a sin. The practice of the rightly-guided caliphs and the Companions further supports this. However, avoiding it brings reward, because if this is not accepted, then the Messenger of Allah’s (ﷺ) prohibition has no benefit left.
Most scholars have adopted this position. Hafiz Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) says: this is the best of the opinions, and it is the least open to objection.
Third approach: Drinking while standing is forbidden, but if there is a valid excuse one may drink while standing. If one reflects on the occasions on which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ drank while standing, this is the point that becomes clear. In the narration of Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), it is related that when a bucket was handed to him at the well of Zamzam, he drank while standing. Evidently, in the crowd of pilgrims, at the well where water is scattered all around, it is not easy to drink from a bucket while seated, so he drank while standing.
In the hadith of Kabshah (may Allah be pleased with her), it is related that he drank water from the mouth of a hanging water-skin, which was difficult to do while seated. In the hadith of Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), he drank the leftover water of his ablution while standing. Although there is a possibility that he performed the ablution while seated, there is also the possibility that he performed ablution from a water-skin and drank from it while standing.
What appears most correct is to keep the prohibition on its literal meaning, that drinking while standing is impermissible, and to regard the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ action as being due to an excuse. This is because it is difficult to interpret the prohibition as one of mere disapproval (tanzih) given the command to do something as painful as vomiting for drinking while standing, and the mention that one who drinks while standing has Satan drinking with him.
As for the Companions from whom drinking while standing has been reported, it is possible that the prohibitive hadiths had not reached them, and that on seeing the Messenger of Allah ﷺ drink while standing they understood the act to be permissible without qualification. Once the prohibition of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has reached us, we must refrain from eating and drinking while standing without an excuse. However, if one is unable to sit, one may eat and drink while standing. And Allah knows best.
Fourth approach: Zamzam water and the leftover water of ablution may be drunk while standing; apart from these two, drinking while standing is forbidden.
Fifth approach: Drinking while standing is specific to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; others may not drink while standing.
