Is it in the Sunnah to let the guest eat alone?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: We have a custom in our country and region that when a guest comes to eat, they do not eat with him; rather, they leave the guest alone.
The Shaykh:
Yes.
The questioner:
He says: We have a custom in our region that when a guest comes to eat, they do not eat with him and leave the guest alone, and they say that this is a form of honor so that he may eat at his ease. Is this action correct? Does it have a basis in the Sunnah?
The Shaykh:
It has no basis in the Sunnah. However, even among the Bedouin, some of us present the guest alone, and the guest eats alone. This is a custom among some Bedouin. It has no basis in the Sunnah; it is merely a matter of custom among some tribes.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: We have a custom in our country and region that when a guest comes to eat, they do not eat with him; rather, they leave the guest alone.
The Shaykh:
Yes.
The questioner:
He says: We have a custom in our region that when a guest comes to eat, they do not eat with him and leave the guest alone, and they say that this is a form of honor so that he may eat at his ease. Is this action correct? Does it have a basis in the Sunnah?
The Shaykh:
It has no basis in the Sunnah. However, even among the Bedouin, some of us present the guest alone, and the guest eats alone. This is a custom among some Bedouin. It has no basis in the Sunnah; it is merely a matter of custom among some tribes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [3436/1467] هل من السنة ترك الضيف يأكل وحده؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.