The ruling on addressing a person as “O Muhammad” when his name is unknown
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh:
[An-Nahl 16:43], yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good.
The questioner:
This questioner says: Is it permissible to address a person as “O Muhammad” if his name is not known, as is done today when addressing workers in restaurants and other places, and this is common everywhere?
The Shaykh:
There is nothing wrong with that, but it is more appropriate to say “O servant of Allah.” Are all people servants of Allah? You say “O servant of Allah, do such and such, O servant of Allah,” if you do not know his name. Otherwise, address him by his name.
So ask the people of the message if you do not know.
فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَThe presenter:
May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good.
The questioner:
This questioner says: Is it permissible to address a person as “O Muhammad” if his name is not known, as is done today when addressing workers in restaurants and other places, and this is common everywhere?
The Shaykh:
There is nothing wrong with that, but it is more appropriate to say “O servant of Allah.” Are all people servants of Allah? You say “O servant of Allah, do such and such, O servant of Allah,” if you do not know his name. Otherwise, address him by his name.
Source
حقوق النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم — alfawzan.live (41:25)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.