Hot Water, Hadith for Sneezing and Ignorance

One headline which caught my attention online today was that of two housewives who bathed each other in hot water over a man. For details, kindly read here and here. It is all over the internet. I wont bore you with the details. The gist of the story simply was that both women had a disagreement over a man and ended up shredding their skin.

While reading through the story, I tried to find out the trigger, the real cause of the spark. It couldnt have started anyhow, it must have been triggered by something. Alas! I found it and the most interesting part of the story was not that the spark was needed at all. It was simply out of ignorance on both parties. It is after all human to have a tussle over a man, but the mistake, the spark, trust me, is unpardonable, both women being muslims.

My analysis...

One of the women had alleged as follows:

“His sister then picked up a quarrel with me and started raining curses on me. I did not talk because I was observing a fast. While she was abusing me, I sneezed and said, ‘Ausubillahi minashaitani rojeem’ (God, deliver me from the devil).”

Well, on a simple look, this statement seems normal, but for a muslim, it is way abnormal. When a muslim sneezes, the correct thing to say is "Al-Hamdulilah" as it is backed up by a hadith. But clearly, one of the hot water women was misinformed as she said "Ausubillahi minashaitani rojeem". One simply wonders who taught her that!

Now, you would simply think, well, that could not have been the spark to warrant pouring hot water on each other... but it was! The other woman took the "Ausubillahi minashaitani rojeem" as meaning "Calling her as shaitain" a kind of name calling!

"Muyibat said Biliki, who is also a Muslim, thought she was referring to her and queried her for calling her a devil. She alleged that Biliki attacked her in the process."

So it was that the fight started and.....

“I removed the water I was boiling for my vegetables and put it on the table. She (Biliki) held my head from behind and poured the hot water on me"

In the end, the trigger moment was all because of misinformation. One would argue that the women did not understand the meaning of the arabic phrases they uttered and did not know the significance or what to say at the appropriate time. I will leave you with the hadith on sneezing in Islam, so that we dont get another issue with it. 

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: 

The Prophet (PBUH) said, "Allah likes sneezing and dislikes yawning. When any one of you sneezes and says `Al-hamdu lillah (praise be to Allah)', it becomes obligatory upon every Muslim who hears him to respond with `Yarhamuk-Allah (may Allah have mercy on you)'. Yawning is from the devil. When one of you feels like yawning, he should restrain it as much as possible, for the devil laughs when one of you yawns.''

[Al-Bukhari].