Salam
Since a young age I was told that when drinking the blessed zamzam water, that I should face the qiblah and stand. Back in 2006 when I was in al-Khobar, the “5 star” Saad Hospital, during Ramadan, kindly placed containers of zamzam outside their hospital mosque for everyone to benefit from. A dear salafi colleague and myself took advantage of this opportunity regularly, however it was not long before I was told politely that my act of standing up went against the authentic hadith. My reply was something along the lines of “ermm, Ill check it up”, and I carried on drinking zamzam water standing and facing the qiblah (Don’t worry they realised I was a lost cause).
Anyways alhumdulilah, as has often been the case, these practises passed down have some kind of basis in the sunnah, so for the two etiquettes mentioned above please find the following evidences:
Since a young age I was told that when drinking the blessed zamzam water, that I should face the qiblah and stand. Back in 2006 when I was in al-Khobar, the “5 star” Saad Hospital, during Ramadan, kindly placed containers of zamzam outside their hospital mosque for everyone to benefit from. A dear salafi colleague and myself took advantage of this opportunity regularly, however it was not long before I was told politely that my act of standing up went against the authentic hadith. My reply was something along the lines of “ermm, Ill check it up”, and I carried on drinking zamzam water standing and facing the qiblah (Don’t worry they realised I was a lost cause).
Anyways alhumdulilah, as has often been the case, these practises passed down have some kind of basis in the sunnah, so for the two etiquettes mentioned above please find the following evidences:
Facing the Qiblah
Ibn Abi Mulaykah reported: “A man came to Ibn `Abbas. He asked the man, ‘Where are you coming from?’ The man replied: ‘I drank from Zamzam.’ Ibn `Abbas asked him, ‘Did you drink from it as you are supposed to?’ “The man asked: ‘O Ibn `Abbas, how am I supposed to drink it?’ Ibn `Abbas replied: ‘When you drink its water you should face the direction of the Qiblah, remember Allah, drink it in three breaths, drink as much as you can, and praise and thank Allah when you finish drinking.’ The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: “A major difference between us and the hypocrites is that they do not drink their fill of the water of Zamzam.”
-Sunan al-Darqutni (2/288) Ibn Majah (2/1017) Al-Busiri said in his Zawaid: Its chain is Sahih
-Sunan al-Darqutni (2/288) Ibn Majah (2/1017) Al-Busiri said in his Zawaid: Its chain is Sahih
Standing Up
There is a difference of opinion amongst the scholars regarding this issue. A group of the Hanafi scholars such as: al-Haskafi in al-Dur al-Mukhtar (1/129),al-Luknawi in Umdah al-Riayah (1/267) and Ibn Abidin in his Hashiyah (1/129) mention that the strongest position is that one should stand when drinking zamzam.
Their evidence is that which is reported in al-Bukhari (3/492) and Sahih Muslim (3/1601) that: Ibn Abbas (ra) said: I poured zamzam for the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give Him peace), and He drank from it whilst standing.
They therefore argue that drinking zamzam whilst standing is the established practice of the Prophet (Allah bless Him and give Him peace).
Note: There is a valid difference of opinion on this issue, so if we do see someone drinking zamzam sitting we should understand that they are acting according to the other valid opinion on this issue.
And with Allah is success, We ask Him (the Exalted) to give us the opportunity to drink our fill of Zamzam whilst gazing at His sacred House. Ameen.