“In the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ we would eat while walking and drink while standing.”

This wording shows that the prohibition was not meant to render the act unlawful; rather, it was meant to discourage what is less fitting. The preferable and more complete practice is for a person to drink sitting down and to eat sitting down, yet there is no harm in drinking or eating while standing.

The evidence for this is the ḥadīth of ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both): “I served the Prophet ﷺ water from Zamzam and he drank it while standing.”

Zamzam is the spring that flows beside the Kaaba. Its origin goes back to when Abraham, the Close Friend of the Almighty, left Hagar—the mother of Ishmael—and her infant son Ishmael in Makkah, where there was no one: no residents, no Kaaba, no crops, for it is a valley without vegetation. He placed beside them a container of dates and a water skin and then left, because Allah had commanded him to keep them there.

As he walked away, Hagar followed him asking, “How can you go off and leave us here? Did Allah command you to do this?” He answered, “Yes.” She said, “Then He will never forsake us.” This reflects the perfection of Hagar’s faith (may Allah be pleased with her).

Her story parallels that of the mother of Moses son of ʿImrān. Pharaoh had dominion over the Children of Israel, killing their male infants and sparing their females to humiliate them, for it was said that the astrologers had informed him that a man would arise from among the Children of Israel who would