The ruling on standing for a person entering as a sign of honor and respect.

The Shaykh : Praise is to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and the badness of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides has no misguider, and whoever He misguides has no guider. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. As for what follows, rulings are numerous, and many of them differ in the Shari'ah based on the form of the ruling first, and the intention accompanying that form second. A man standing up to serve his guests is a praiseworthy and prescribed matter. However, standing up to honor and respect a certain person or persons is a matter that is not prescribed. Therefore, every Muslim, especially if he is a student of knowledge, should consider the nature of that ruling first, and the intention that should accompany it second. The standing up of the head of the household or the owner of the house to serve guests is a sunnah (recommended practice) upon which the practice of the righteous predecessors was based. It falls under the generality of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) . But if the standing is for respect, as we said, for a person or persons, then this standing is prohibited in the Shari'ah. This is based on what Imam Muslim narrated in his "Sahih" from the hadith of Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) led his companions in the midday prayer one day while sitting, and the people stood behind him. He gestured to them like this, telling them to sit, and he prayed with them while they were sitting with him. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) finished his prayer, he turned to them saying . This is the end of the hadith of Jabir, which, as we said, is in "Sahih Muslim." The point of it is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) ordered the praying people who were standing behind him to pray with him sitting, knowing that standing in the obligatory prayer is a pillar of the prayer, and the prayer is not valid without this pillar, as He (Mighty and Majestic) said , and as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith . So, even though standing for the obligatory prayer is a pillar of the prayer, we found that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) dropped this pillar for those standing behind him in the obligatory prayer. Why? So that the image he referred to in his saying to them would not manifest. Despite the clear difference between the sitting of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and the standing of his companions behind him: first, he sat to pray while they stood to pray; second, he sat out of necessity, not out of arrogance; third, his companions did not stand behind him to respect him, but to respect the Lord of the Worlds, who said in the Qur'an, as you just heard . Despite the difference in the image between the Messenger (peace be upon him) and his companions on one hand, and the image of Kisra and his entourage on the other—where Kisra sits on his throne and the ministers and attendants stand behind and around him in respect for him—and despite the difference in the intent and purpose of both groups, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) refused to let his companions continue praying behind him standing. Instead, he told them to sit, and he established this rule for all praying people throughout the ages: . Therefore, we should note that if standing is for the sake of respect, as is the case today in many occasions, then this is a prohibited matter and contrary to the sunnah (recommended practice) of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). — Up to here, up to here, O Husayn. First, block the door for those entering, and second, let us bring our bodies close so that our hearts may be close. How are you? And it is authentic from Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said . And I believe that whoever is truly among the people of knowledge will be among the inheritors of the prophets, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said . But this inheritance is not realized except with two things. The first is that the knowledge he inherited from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) be pure knowledge, not mixed with opinions, innovations, and newly invented matters, because otherwise he would not be an inheritor of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). This is the first condition. The second condition is that he acts upon his knowledge and that his speech does not contradict his action and his action does not contradict his speech, as Allah the Exalted said . The true scholar knows that among the guidance of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) is what you just heard: he was praying while excused (sitting), and they were standing while excused for the sake of Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. Yet he told them to sit so that there would be no resemblance between this believing group and that disbelieving group. This is from one aspect. From another aspect, what you heard from the hadith of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), who said, "No one was more beloved to them than the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), and they did not stand for him because they knew his dislike of it." This means that when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) entered upon them, his companions did not stand for him. Why? The answer came in the same hadith: "because they knew his dislike of it." So, whoever is a true Muhammadan inheritor of beneficial knowledge first and righteous action second, this is manifested in all his movements and stillnesses. Among these is that, just as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) disliked his companions standing for him—though he was the most deserving of honor and respect, as came in his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) —it is certain that his companions (peace and blessings be upon him) knew his right fully and completely, without diminishment. But did they stand for him? You know the answer is no. Why? Because it is not the right of the followers of a scholar over the scholar that they stand for him every time he enters. So, if this standing for a scholar should be disliked (makruh), it is because it was disliked (makruh) by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). — To your companion here, may Allah guide you. This research is actually long, but I will suffice with what I mentioned on that occasion. However, I will conclude it with some verses of poetry. A scholar passed by a nobleman who was in his shop, and this nobleman knew from that scholar that he disliked standing, as you heard from the explanation. The nobleman said, apologizing:
"Do not blame me for standing, for my right *** When it appears is that I should not stand.
You are the most noble of creation to me, *** And it is right that I honor the noble ones."
The scholar said to his companion, who was walking with him, and his companion was a poet. Scholars are not usually good at poetry, but this poet companion was proud of his knowledge of this scholar regarding the issue of standing. The scholar said to his poet companion, "Answer for me." So he said, on the spur of the moment:
"If you are one whose absence I would not bear, *** You have a right, and you show respect.
You have the merit in precedence and knowledge, *** And we do not seek from you humility.
So pardon me now from your standing first, *** For I will repay you with standing.
And I hate that very much, *** For in it is flattery and sin.
Do not force your brother to receive you *** With what makes the forbidden permissible.
And if our hearts are sound, *** We will suffice ourselves from tiring our bodies.
We are all confident in the love of our meeting, *** So why our distress and for what?" This is the speech of a true scholar: that the criterion is what is in the hearts. "And if our hearts are sound, *** We will suffice ourselves from tiring our bodies.
We are all confident in the love of our brother, *** So why our distress and for what?" A joke occurred on this occasion in Damascus. One of the 'Ubaydiyyin, a man from the Hashimi Arabic Office named Hamdi 'Ubayd (may Allah have mercy on him), told me: "We attended a reception, or were invited to a reception, and they seated us in the front rows. Before long, a rumor spread that the such-and-such prince was entering. The eyes turned to the main door of the reception, and the prince entered. We stood and remained standing until the prince sat in the front of the place, then we sat. We had barely sat when another rumor spread that the such-and-such pasha was entering. The pasha entered, and we stood and remained standing until he sat. We had barely sat when another rumor spread that the such-and-such minister was entering. And so on, their standing and sitting repeated. The point is, my companion said to me, 'My brother, I did not feel anything except that it was like a spring... bouncing from under me, raising me and seating me.' Then we said, 'This is a long affair; the best thing, by Allah, is that we take the sunnah (recommended practice) that we heard about by...'"The Shaykh : The so-and-so remained, and whenever someone entered, I remained seated in my place. We rested in the Sunnah, and in the Sunnah, the rest of the Muslim community will be found. This is an example concerning a very minor detail, but the Sunnah about which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said . So we ask Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), first, to make us know the Sunnah and the authentic Sunnah, because there is a long discussion here; there are Sunan that people think are part of the Sunnah but are not of the Sunnah in any way, because reports have entered into the Sunnah and the hadith that have no basis from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Therefore, I say: we ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to make us know and teach us the Sunnah and the authentic Sunnah first, and then to inspire us to act upon this Sunnah second, so that our knowledge does not become a proof against us. And in that is a reminder for whoever has a heart or lends an ear while being a witness.