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Taking Allah’s name before eating

Question

What is the grading of the following Hadith?

“We were with the Prophet when food was presented to him, and I never saw food which had greater blessing when we began to eat, or less when we finished. We asked Allah’s messenger how that was, and he replied, “We mentioned Allah’s name when we ate, then one who ate sat down without mentioning Allah’s name and the devil ate with him.”

 

Answer

This narration is recorded in Musnad Ahmad, Ash Shamail of Imam Tirmidhi and Sharhus Sunnah.

Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub Al Ansari (radiyallahu ‘anhu) reported: “We were once with  Nabi (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) when some food was presented. I never saw food which had greater blessing [barakah] when we began to eat but less blessing when we finished. We said, ‘O Rasulullah! How is this possible?’ He replied, ‘When we ate, we took Allah’s name, then somebody sat down to eat and did not take Allah’s name, so Shaytan ate with him.’”

(Musnad Ahmad, vol. 5 pg. 415/416, Shamail Tirmidhi, Hadith: 188, Sharhus Sunnah, Hadith: 2824)

 

The Hadith could be declared sound (hasan) according to Hafiz Ibn Hajar (rahimahullah) based on his principle in his book, Hidayatur Ruwat.

(Hidayatur Ruwat, Hadith: 4131. Also see: Majma’uz Zawaid, vol. 5 pg. 23)

 

And Allah Ta’ala Knows best.

Answered by: Moulana Suhail Motala

Approved by: Moulana Muhammad Abasoomar

This answer was collected from HadithAnswers.com. The answers were either answered or checked by Moulana Haroon Abasoomar (rahimahullah) who was a Shaykhul Hadith in South Africa, or by his son, Moulana Muhammad Abasoomer (hafizahullah), who is a Hadith specialist. 

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