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Covering Dishes

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Qibla.com

Answered by Shaykh Gibril F Haddad

In a lecture once, Sheikh M. Yacoubi told us that it is in the Sunnah to cover up any food and drink that are left out or in the fridge overnight. Do you have the hadith for this?

Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

This is a Prophetic hadith from Jabir ibn `Abd Allah in al-Bukhari and
Muslim,
the Muwatta’, al-Tirmidhi, and Ahmad in the wordings “Khammiru
aaniyatakum” or cover your vessels, pots, pans, bowls etc. and “Awku al-
asqiyata wa-khammiru al-ta`ama wal-sharaba wa-law bi-`udin ya`ruduhu” or
Tie up the mouths of drinking jugs and cover food and drink if only with
some
sticks across it, as protection against mice and shaytans provided all
this is
accompanied by the Basmala.

Then, he explained the hadith by telling us about how the reason for
this is that during the night, at some point, a disease comes down and
if it falls into an uncovered dish and we eat from that dish, then we
might get that disease.
Do you have any proof of this or could you ask him about clarification
of this, if possible?

This is also in Sahih Muslim and the Musnad from Jabir and more precisely
states: on a certain night or day during the year. Al-Layth added “Our
non-Arabs
(in Egypt) are especially watchful in Kanun al-Awwal,” i.e. the month of
December. So there are two reasons:
one visible and controllable, namely pests, and one invisible and
uncontrollable.

Also, if we have utensils or empty dishes out at night, do they have
to be covered as well?

> Or overturned, or put away. Was-Salam,
>
> GF Haddad

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