Honouring the guest (ikram al-dayf)

Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy presents honouring the guest as an old Arab custom, and joins it to sayings and stories about generosity without pretence. ¹ He tells of a poor man who had nothing for his guest but bread and oil, of a man who insisted on sharing his food with his guest, and he gives a saying attributed to Abdullah ibn Masud about the guest's place with his host. ^{2 3 4}

He says that Arabs used to host a guest without asking his name or the reason for his coming. ¹ He gives a saying of an Arab sage on welcoming the guest; the note does not name the speaker of it (needs_source: unattributed-saying). ¹ The Sheikh affirms that generosity does not rest on pretence. ¹

The Sheikh tells of a poor man from his village who had only bread and oil for his guest; when the guest asked for thyme, the man sold his waterskin to buy it (needs_source: anecdote-unattributed). ² He comments that contentment with what a person has is better than pretence. ²

The Sheikh gives a saying attributed to Abdullah ibn Masud that the guest is the person most beloved to his host, because his provision is with God (needs_source: saying-attribution-garbled; hadith-ref: Ibn-Masud). ³ He says that a generous person serves his guest his food without pretence, and points to Hatim al-Tai as an example of generosity. ³

The Sheikh tells of an Arab man who insisted that his guest share his food, and would not eat alone while the guest was with him (needs_source: anecdote-unattributed). ⁴ He links this to the description of the Prophet ﷺ as generous and to the generosity of his lineage, and refers to a hadith whose name is not given in the note (needs_source: hadith-unnamed). ⁴