Islam pays great emphasis on the way of doing things. It teaches its followers the right way of doing things and then with that way of doing things it associates the idea of reward and punishment to keep the followers motivated. This is why accepting Islam does not mean accepting a religion only, rather it entails accepting a new life style.
Pertaining to the different aspects of life about which Islam has spoken, one seemingly trivial factor about which Islam has spoken about is relieving oneself while in toilet. In addition to the way it is to be done, Islam speaks about the direction one needs to face or turn the back towards during the process. For Muslims Qibla is the most important direction in the world. It is the direction in which Muslims pray as Kabah is located there which is the holiest of places for Muslims. Before prayers, Muslims Find Qibla Direction and then pray facing it. Therefore, Muslims face a problem when they have to use a toilet that is either facing towards Qibla or has its back towards it. Regarding this issue, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said in one of His hadiths: “I am for you, how a father is for his son. I teach you. So whenever one of you goes to the toilet, he should not face the Qibla or face his back towards it, and he should not use his right hand to clean himself.” (Abu Dawud) From the hadith it is clear that a Muslim is not to face the direction of Qibla or to turn his or her back towards it when using the toilet. Therefore, whenever a Muslim is to build bathrooms in his or her house, they are to make sure that the direction of the toilet is neither towards nor against Qibla direction. The question then to ask is that what is a Muslim supposed to do when he or she does not have any other option and they are to use toilet built in the direction prohibited in Islam. The answer to this can be inferred from the following narration where Abu Ayyub (RA) said: “When we came to Syria we found that their toilets were built facing Qiblah.So we used to deviate while using them and used to ask Allah forgiveness for that.” (Abu Dawud) This hadith gives answer to the question that what is a Muslim supposed to do whenever he or she comes across a toilet that is built in such a way that is not allowed in Islam. The first thing that a Muslim should do is avoid any such toilet as much as possible, however, when the situation is unavoidable and one is to use the toilet, then one should consider tilting away a little when relieving. Although it does not avoid the facing or turning the back towards Qiblah, however, it shows the intent of a Muslim that is what matters to Allah. Conclusion: In a nutshell, a Muslim must consider building toilets as per the Islamic guidelines, however, whenever a Muslim is to use a toilet that is not as per the guidelines, then one should try to deviate a little when using it so that the intent could be accounted in the court of Allah Almighty.
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