Is the Hostel Life Foreign to the Sunna?

Answered by Ustadh Tabraze Azam

Question: As salam alaykum,

I read somewhere in an article on this site that the concept of a hostel life in not from the Sunnah. Is this correct?
I am planning to send my daughter for her undergraduate studies overseas where she will have to live in a hostel, and I am very keen to have a clarification on the above.

Answer: Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

I pray that this message finds you well, insha’Allah.

I’m not sure which article you are referring to, but in and of itself, it would be permitted for your daughter to stay in a safe and dignified place.

As for communal living, we have the practice of the People of the Lodge (suffa) where some of the poverty-stricken believers would stay, and the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) did not admonish them for it.

Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “I saw seventy of the people of the Suffa and not a man among them had a cloak. They either had a waist wrapper or a sheet (kisa’) which they tied round their necks, some reaching to the middle of their legs and some reaching to the ankles. They would gather them in their hands, not wanting their private parts to be seen.” [Bukhari]

And Allah alone knows best.

wassalam,

Tabraze Azam

Checked & Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani