Chapter: The reprehensibility of sitting in the posture of iḥtibāʾ on Friday while the imam is preaching, for it induces drowsiness—causing one to miss the sermon—and there is a risk that one’s ablution may be nullified.
1705 – Muʿādh ibn Anas al-Juhanī (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet ﷺ forbade the posture of ḥubwah on Friday while the imam was delivering the sermon. Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī recorded it, and both graded the hadith as ḥasan (fair).
[Commentary]
The author, may Allah have mercy on him, says: “Chapter on the prohibition of ḥubwah on Friday while the imam is preaching.” Ḥubwah is when a person draws his thighs up against his abdomen, rests his shins on his thighs, and fastens himself in that position with a belt, turban cloth, or the like. The Prophet ﷺ forbade this posture during the Friday sermon for two reasons:
- It may cause the person to doze off and hence fail to listen to the sermon.
- Should he move, his private parts might become exposed, for people in earlier times generally wore waist-wrappers and cloaks, so any shift or turn could uncover them.
If these concerns are absent, there is no harm in assuming that posture, because whenever a prohibition is linked to an intelligible cause, the prohibition lapses when the cause no longer exists.