Bad omen and the greeting of namaste

5-5-2011 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalam u alaikum Wa Rahmathullahi Wa Barakatuhu, I have two questions to ask. This is the second time I am sending the questions. I request you to kindly answer my questions at the earliest. 1. I heard from my elders that place plays an important role in ones health, wealth and success. I mean to ask that if some one falls sick and unable to recover they say this house is not suiting you or else this room in your house in not good or change the position of the bed. If one is incurring loss in the business they say the place is not good it has not suited you. Is it right? Is all this happens because of place only? Should muslims believe this? 2. I work in a college and my students parents sometime greet me with namaste and I reply hello to them. But they expect me to say namaste which I dont do it. Can we greet namaste? Thanks in advance Jazakallah khairu

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

It is confirmed that the Prophet said: “Bad omens are in the house, the woman and the horse.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

In another narration, the Prophet said: “If at all there is bad omen, it is in the horse, the house and the woman.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

The scholars differed in opinion about this Hadeeth; the best opinion is the one of Imaam Maalik and a group of scholars who consider the wording of the Hadeeth to mean its literal meaning, that it may be that Allaah makes dwelling in a house a reason for harm and devastation by the Decree of Allaah, as per the commentary of An-Nawawi on “Saheeh Muslim.” For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 136033.

It should be known that if Allaah put some evil omen in some things, then this is by the Decree of Allaah and His wisdom. However, it is not permissible for a Muslim to believe that it can cause any effect by itself as this is a kind of Shirk as Ibn Mas’ood narrated that the Prophet said: “Seeing an evil omen is Shirk.” [Ahmad] For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 91008.

As regards the salutation which you mentioned (Namaste), on the one hand, it includes – as we came to know – bowing down, so if the matter is so, then saluting while bowing down is not permissible as we clarified in Fatwa 88171.

On the other hand, we fear that it has a relation with the Hindu rituals, so if this is the case, you are not permitted to do it.

Allaah Knows best.