Question: What is your opinion on chewing gum in front of people?
Answer: “In our custom, it is against the manhood (المروءة)”.
[Kanz uth-Thameen Fi Su’alaat Ibn Sunayd no. 799 pg. 182]
Translator’s Note:
Shaikh Ibn ul-‘Uthaymeen rahimahullah also mentioned this elsewhere in his works:
“What breaches manhood according to one people may not be a breach according to other people. It may be a breach of manhood in one time period and not in another. So we do not cease to return manhood to customs and it is what people know to be good. So then, the issue is according to the customs of people. For example, the Scholars mention: from that which breaches a person’s manhood is sleeping between two people who are sitting. So if someone sleeps between two people who are sitting, his manhood drops. This is because it is against the usual [custom]. If he exits the same level of two people who are sitting, then his manhood will drop. Another example, [if he] goes ahead or behind a row, [his] manhood drops, if he chews gum in front of people, his manhood drops, if he eats in the market, his manhood drops. So we know that the principle for manhood is what the people know to be good and what they know to be ugly/evil, then it is against the manhood…”
[Sharh Mumti’ (15/425)]
Translated by
Faisal Ibn Abdul Qaadir Ibn Hassan
Abu Sulaymaan
