Home

Main Menu

Sections

Is Shaking Hands and Embracing acts of Bid'ah only at the Eid Gah? PDF Print E-mail
SALAAH.. The Book of Prayer - Salaah of the Two 'Id

Is Shaking Hands and Embracing acts of Bid'ah only at the Eid Gah?

Q: Salaah-541: When asked about shaking hands and embracing in a Previous Fatwa, you replied that although these are acts of Sunnah, it is Makrooh and an act of Bid'ah to carry them out specifically when the moon is sighted or after the Khutbahs of Eid and Jumu'ah.

What I wish to know is whether shaking hands and embracing are acts of Bid'ah only in the Masjid and Eid Gah or always such? People usually shake hands and embrace for three days afterwards, saying that this is because they are meeting each other, whereas they are really doing so because of the Eid. They say that shaking hands and embracing will be a Bid'ah only if carried out in the Masjid or Eid Gah. Is this true?

Answer: Just as shaking hands and embracing in the Sunnah method is permissible in all places, so too is the Bid'ah manner of shaking hands and embracing forbidden in all places. Shaking hands is Sunnah when meeting, while on the occasion of Eid, it is only Mustahab to congratulate each other by verbally saying, (TAKABBALAL LAAHUMINNAA WA?MINKUM) Shaking hands is not necessary on this occasion and must especially be avoided because it is a practice of the Rawaafidh. What occasion for shaking hands and embracing is it when people leave together for the Eid salaah, sit together, perform the salaah and listen to the khutbah together and then get up to shake hands and embrace? Refer to a previous Fatwa on the subject for more details. And Allaah knows best what is most correct.

Fatawa Rahimiyyah vol.2