Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Is it haram/disliked to say salaam to someone in a bathroom. I once heard that one shouldn’t say salaam or do dhikr there as it is an unclean place?
Answer:
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
It is prohibitively disliked to give salams to someone in the toilet, and disliked for them to return the salams. After they exit, they are not expected to return the salams. [Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar, quoting Tahtawi]
Ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him) reported that,
“A man passed by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) while he was relieving himself. The man gave him salams, but he did not answer back.” [Muslim, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, Nasa’i, and Ibn Maja]
Ibn Nujaym relates in his al-Bahr al-Ra’iq (8.236) from Qadi Khan’s Fatawa that,
“It is disliked to give salams to someone in the toilet, and they do not answer back. Likewise the one eating [f: such that there is food in their mouth, because they are busy and unable to answer], reciting Qur’an, busy with Sacred Knowledge ”
And Allah alone gives success.
Faraz Rabbani.
