The Devil Sleeps on His Nostrils

It was stated in Fath Al-Bari, a commentary on Sahih Al-Bukhari

Hadith of Abu Hurairah regarding the command to blow one’s nose, in which it says: ” For Satan spends the night on one’s nostrils .” The nostril, with the opening of the Kha’, the sukoon of the Ya’, the Damma of the voiced letter and the sukoon of the Waw, is the nose. It was also said: the nostril.

His saying

: ” So let him blow his nose ” is more beneficial than his saying: ” So let him sniff it , ”

because blowing his nose is similar to sniffing, not the other way around. One may sniff it but not blow his nose. Blowing his nose is a complete benefit of sniffing, because the reality of sniffing is drawing water with the wind from the nose to its furthest point, and blowing his nose is removing that water. The purpose of blowing the nose is cleaning the inside of the nose, and blowing the nose is removing that dirt with the water, so it is a complete benefit of sniffing. It was said: Blowing the nose is taken from the tip of the nose. It was also said: the nose itself. Based on this, whoever blows his nose has blown his nose, because he believes that he took water with his nose or the tip of his nose, and there is a view on this. Then the apparent meaning of the hadith is that this happens to every sleeper, and it is possible that it is specific to the one who does not guard against Satan with any remembrance, due to the hadith of Abu Hurairah mentioned before the hadith of Sa`d, in which it says: ” So it was a protection for him from Satan ,” and likewise ” Ayat al-Kursi ,” and it was mentioned before:

” And no Satan shall come near you .” It is possible that what is meant by denying closeness here is that he does not come near the place where he whispers, which is the heart, so he spends the night on the nose in order to reach the heart from it when he wakes up, so whoever sniffs his nose, it prevents him from reaching what he intended from the whispers, so in that case the hadith is applicable to everyone who is awake. Then sniffing water from the nose is one of the Sunnahs of ablution, according to consensus, for everyone who wakes up or is awake, and a group said that it is obligatory in ritual washing and a group said that it is obligatory in ablution as well. Is the Sunnah fulfilled by it alone without sniffing water from the nose or is there no disagreement? This is a subject of research and contemplation. What appears is that it is not completed without it, due to what was mentioned above.

And Allah knows best.

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