Chapter on Honoring the Guest: Allah the Exalted said: “Has the story of the honored guests of Ibrahim reached you? When they entered upon him and said, ‘Peace,’ he said, ‘Peace, you are strangers.”

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
He (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "Chapter on honoring the guest. Allah the Exalted said:

⁽²⁴⁾ Has there reached you the story of the honored guests of Abraham? - ⁽²⁵⁾ When they entered upon him and said, "[We greet you with] peace." He answered, "[And upon you] peace, [you are] a people unknown. ⁽²⁶⁾ Then he went to his family and came with a fat [roasted] calf ⁽²⁷⁾ And placed it near them; he said, "Will you not eat?"

هل أتاك حديث ضيف إبراهيم المكرمين * إذ دخلوا عليه فقالوا سلامًا قال سلام قوم منكرون * فراغ إلى أهله فجاء بعجل سمين * فقربه إليهم قال ألا تأكلون

[Adh-Dhariyat 51:24-27]

And He the Exalted said:

And his people came hastening to him, and before [this] they had been doing evil deeds. He said, "O my people, these are my daughters; they are purer for you. So fear Allah and do not disgrace me concerning my guests. Is there not among you a man of reason?"

وجاءه قومه يهرعون إليه ومن قبل كانوا يعملون السيئات قال يا قوم هؤلاء بناتي هن أطهر لكم فاتقوا الله ولا تخزون في ضيفي أليس منكم رجل رشيد

[Hud 11:78]

".

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said in his book *Riyad al-Salihin*:"The Chapter on Honoring the Guest"The guest is the traveler who stays with you so that you may receive him with shelter, food, drink, and whatever he needs. Hospitality is a noble, ancient trait dating back to the time of Ibrahim al-Khalil (peace be upon him), if not before that. The author, may Allah have mercy on him, will mention, if Allah wills, in the hadiths, several reports regarding honoring the guest and that honoring him is part of faith in Allah and the Last Day. However, as is his custom, he begins with the noble verses because the Qur'an takes precedence over the Sunnah. The Qur'an is the speech of Allah, and the hadith is the speech of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). Both are truth that must be believed if they are reports and obeyed if they are commands. So he began with the verses, may Allah have mercy on him, and said: The interrogative here is used to create suspense so that the addressee pays attention and his interest is aroused, and the address in His saying: either to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) or to him and the Ummah, to everyone to whom it is appropriate to address to the end of it. These guests were angels whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) sent to Ibrahim, and then to Lut. And His saying: meaning those whom Ibrahim (peace be upon him) honored The scholars said that their saying "peace" means "we offer peace," and that his saying "peace" means "upon you be peace." The second is more eloquent than the first, because it is prescribed for one who is greeted with a greeting to respond with something better than it or the same, as the Exalted said: And the second phrase is more eloquent than the first because the first is a verbal sentence while the second is a nominal sentence that conveys permanence and continuity. Then he said: He did not say, "You are a people," because "you" is explicit in the address, and this might be considered offensive by some people. So, as part of his good treatment of his guest, he said, "A people of unknowns." And "people," if we take it this way, could be interpreted as: "They are a people," or "You are a people," or "These are a people." It is not as explicit as saying "You are a people." Therefore, the subject was omitted, and it became "A people of unknowns." The meaning of their being "unknowns" is that he did not know them, because it was the first time he was meeting them. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) was generous, and the meaning of *raagh* is that he went quietly and quickly to his family, to his home. He brought a calf, which is a young cow, because its meat is tender and delicious; and being fat makes its meat sweeter and more flavorful. In the other verse, it is described as *huniydh*, meaning roasted, with nothing of its flavor lost, which is the most delicious meat can be. He brought it close to them and did not place it far away, saying, "Come forward to the food." Rather, he was the one who brought it close so that they would not have to exert themselves or be troubled. And yet, he did not say, "Eat," as a command. He said: This was an offer, not a command, and this too was part of his excellent treatment of his guests. Then these guests went to Lot in the form of beautiful, handsome young men, a trial. And the people of Lot, may Allah protect us from that, had been afflicted with the disease of sodomy, which is approaching males. So when they went to Lot, some of them went to others to inform them, saying, “Beautiful young men have come to Lot, and they are rushing to him, hurrying to him.” meaning they were committing the heinous act, which is sodomy Some of the scholars said that when he said, “These are my daughters,” he was referring to the daughters of the people. They are not his daughters in the specific sense of being born from his loins, but he meant by that the daughters of his people, because the Prophet is to his people in the position of a father to them. He was as if saying, “You have women among you.” This is like his saying in another verse: meaning from among the women The important thing is that he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to them:, and his saying: This falls under the category of preference where the preferred option contains nothing of the dispreferred option, because engaging in male homosexuality is entirely impure and abominable, as the Exalted said: But because the private parts of women become lawful through the marriage contract But there was not a single sensible man among them, may Allah protect us from that. They said: meaning, you know, we want these young men who came to you. He said: The messengers said: Then they advised him to depart with his family at night and leave the town. In Surat al-Qamar, Allah the Exalted said: It was said that the angels slapped them on their faces, which blinded their eyes, and it was said that Allah blinded their eyes in that very moment. In any case, His saying: This indicates that the guests were honored by Lut, just as they were honored by Ibrahim (peace be upon him). The conclusion is that if a guest comes to you, it is obligatory for you to host him for a day and a night. However, do not do what the foolish do, going to great lengths and preparing a large feast. We even hear that among some people, when a guest arrives, the host goes to slaughter an animal for him. The guest says, “I swear by divorce that you will not slaughter for me,” and the other says, “I swear by divorce that I will slaughter.” This is wrong. Either slaughter or do not, but what is the need for an oath? And if you are compelled to swear, what is the need for swearing by divorce? Because the matter of one who swears by divorce is not trivial. The four Imams—Malik, Abu Hanifah, al-Shafi'i, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal—and the majority of their followers hold that swearing by divorce is a divorce if the person breaks the oath. That is, if you say, “I swear by divorce that you will not do it,” and he does it, his wife is divorced, even if you intended it as an oath. This is the view of the majority of the Ummah and all the followed Imams of this Ummah. Therefore, the matter is serious, and people’s negligence regarding this issue today is a great error. How quickly they say, “I swear by divorce that I will not do it,” or “I swear by divorce that I will do it,” or “My wife is divorced if he does it,” or “My wife is divorced if he does not do it.” This is a great error. How can you say such a thing when the majority of the Ummah hold that if you break the oath, you have divorced your wife? A person must not be negligent in this matter and must not swear by divorce. If there is a need to swear, swear by Allah; otherwise, do not swear. And success is from Allah.