Hadith about eating alone
2-2-2003 | IslamWeb
Question:
I understand that Rasulullah (SAW) always had company to enjoy his food or meal while Nabi Ibrahim (SA) would not eat until he found company to eat together with him. What is the ruling if one has no choice but to eat or breakfast in the house without any company. What does the Hadith say about this situation where a person is living alone in the house? Is it true that evil or satan will approach those who eats alone?
Answer:
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
Eating together in groups is Sunnah and it is a cause of Baraka (Blessing) in the meal. Abu Dawood reported in his 'Sunan' that the companions of the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said to him 'O Prophet of Allah! We eat but do not get satisfied. He said: "May be you eat individually" . They replied: 'yes'. He said: "Get together for your meal and mention the name of Allah on it, Allah will bless it for your." Al-Albany said this Hadith has a good chain. Ibn Attiya said in his Tafseer (Qur'an explanation): 'This seerah (tradition of eating together) was inherited by the Arabs from Prophet Ibrahim who used never to eat alone.' Then Allah said: {……No sin on you whether you eat together or apart……. } [24:61]
This verse made it lawful for the person to eat alone even though looking for another person to share the same meal with him is a good thing. So, if the person eats alone, this does not obligatorily means that Satan will eat with him. The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said: "When a person enters his house and mentions the name of Allah at the time of entering it and while eating the food, Satan says (addressing himself): You have no place to spend the night and no evening meal; but when he enters without mentioning the name of Allah, the Satan says: You have found a place to spend the night, and when he does not mention the name of Allah while eating food, he (the Satan) says: You have found a place to spend the night and evening meal.
" [ Muslim ]
This means that Satan shares the meal of the person even if he is among a group if he does not mention the name of Allah on his meal and that Satan does not eat with him if he mentions the Name of Allah even if he eats alone.
Allah knows best.