We talked about Hadiths defining hospitality. They make it clear that hospitality is for three days, when a guest is made welcome. After that, it is an act of charity. When a guest is about to depart, the host should extend further kindness to him by giving him a gift of food and drink to suffice for 24 hours. We also commented on the Prophet’s statement making it clear that a guest should not overstay his welcome, because that would embarrass his host, or even may cause him to commit a sin, should he speak about his guest in unfavorable terms.
Scholars agree that in the first night, a host should give his guest extra kindness, to make him feel that he is really welcome. This is natural, as most people and most cultures consider it highly commendable to provide one’s guest on the first day with special, kindly treatment. On the next two days, scholars agree, the host need not go to any extra trouble. It is good hospitality to treat one’s guest as a member of one’s family and serve him with the same type of food and drink one normally provides for one’s family. This is the proper hospitality. If one does more, willingly and without embarrassment, he earns God’s reward for that. But when the three days of hospitality are over, and the guest stays on, anything given to the guest is an act of charity.
This distinction is important because people need to know what they are supposed to provide so that they do not fail to do what is expected of them and what they hope to earn God’s reward for. Some people would be hard put to look after a guest for an extended period. Hence, the Prophet defines the limits when hospitality ends and charity begins.
But what about a situation where the people are inhospitable and travelers are in need of help? Can one expect a minimum amount of hospitality? This is very reasonable, particularly in small villages and desert areas where it is difficult to find anything to eat after the fall of darkness. It is to meet people’s needs in such situations that the Prophet makes it clear that a minimum of hospitality is a duty. He says: “A guest’s night is a duty incumbent on every Muslim. Should a person find (a guest) at his doorstep, hospitality becomes a debt he owes. He (i.e. the guest) may demand it if he wishes, or may forego it if he so prefers.” (Related by Al-Bukhari in Al-Adab Al-Mufrad, Abu Dawood Ibn Majah and others)
Perhaps this Hadith is the clearest statement by the Prophet making hospitality an Islamic duty. Some scholars limit this duty to areas where a traveler cannot buy food for his night. But the Prophet’s statement is general and does not call for such limitation. This is more appropriate because a traveler may not find it easy to look after himself on his first arrival in a town or a city. He may be too tired or may not have ready money to buy what he needs. Rather than allow a traveler to suffer lack of hospitality when he has had to contend with the process of traveling, the Prophet makes it clear that hospitality for the first night is a duty incumbent on all Muslims. Not only so, but he makes it a debt owed by the host to his guest. Needless to say, a debt must be settled, and the creditor can demand it when it falls due. Hence, the Prophet gives further details stating that when a guest arrives at somebody’s door, hospitality for one night is a duty on that person. The guest may demand it like a creditor demands the repayment of a loan. It is up to him to forego it, if he so wishes.
Now how does a guest demand his right to hospitality? In our modern world, this seems totally impractical. There is a hotel or a guest house in almost every locality, where people can pay for their food and lodging. Even if one has run out of cash, there are bank checks and credit cards. So, things are easy for a traveler. But this is not the case everywhere. There are vast areas of populated land where such facilities are still in their very early days or even nonexistent. If one can look after himself in a place where he does not know anybody, well and good. But if he cannot, because the facilities are not there, or because he might have had a misfortune on his way, then he has to rely on people’s hospitality. Thus, the Prophet’s teachings provide a code which should be applied in order to ensure that nobody starves in a place where he is a stranger.
It is such a situation that was put to the Prophet by Uqbah ibn Amir, one of his companions, who reports: “I said: Messenger of God, you have sent us on missions. It may happen that we stop at some people’s quarters but they do not extend any hospitality to us. What do you say about that? He answered: ‘If you stop at some people’s quarter and they order for you the sort of hospitality due to a guest, you should accept it. If they do not, then take from them a guest’s right that they ought to give’.”
This is a remarkable Hadith giving a guest who has not been shown any hospitality the right to take, even without permission, what is reasonably due to him as a guest. He does not start with that. He waits until he finds out whether his host is about to give him something to eat. If he does, then the guest should accept that without complaint or hesitation. In this case, he simply takes what he is given. But when the host is not so forthcoming, then he takes what he needs.
We note in the phraseology of this Hadith some important points. The Prophet does not refer to what may be taken by a guest who has been denied hospitality as “a duty on the host”. Nor does he say to us, “take what you are entitled to”. He puts it in a milder way, referring to it as “what they ought to give”.
Hospitality remains a kindness and everyone ought to be hospitable. But people differ in nature and what a person is ready to give without being asked, another will deny even when asked. Hence, the Prophet tells a denied guest to take what he thinks ought to be given to him. The Prophet does not tell him that this is his right and he may take it by force. He puts him in the host’s place so that he would not take more than the minimum needed in this case.
