Is it permissible to respond to a disbeliever’s sneeze by saying: “May Allah have mercy on you”?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: The Christians in our country say when someone sneezes, which translates to “May Allah bless you.” Does this indicate that sneezing is from the Sunnah of the former prophets, or from the etiquette of the People of the Book? In that… Does this… He says: Does this indicate that sneezing is from the Sunnah of the former prophets, or from the etiquette of the People of the Book?
Answer:
Sneezing is a human trait found in all believers and disbelievers. But the question is: do you say “May Allah have mercy on you” to a disbeliever? This is not permissible; you do not say “May Allah have mercy on you” to him. Rather, you say “May Allah guide you,” as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to the Jews.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: The Christians in our country say when someone sneezes, which translates to “May Allah bless you.” Does this indicate that sneezing is from the Sunnah of the former prophets, or from the etiquette of the People of the Book? In that… Does this… He says: Does this indicate that sneezing is from the Sunnah of the former prophets, or from the etiquette of the People of the Book?
Answer:
Sneezing is a human trait found in all believers and disbelievers. But the question is: do you say “May Allah have mercy on you” to a disbeliever? This is not permissible; you do not say “May Allah have mercy on you” to him. Rather, you say “May Allah guide you,” as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to the Jews.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [3436/1555] هل يجوز تشميت الكافر بقول: يرحمك الله؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.