LEARN ARABIC
The Prophet a often encouraged the Sahaba l to combine their food and eat together. He said to
them, “Gather together when you eat…there will be blessings for you in it”(Abu Dawud). A hadith
of Muslim indicates that the Prophet a often joined the Sahaba l in their joint meals. Once, a
bedouin came suddenly and tried to partake from the food, but the Prophet a grabbed it because
he had not uttered the bismillah. The Prophet a informed the Sahaba l that if he had partaken
from the plate without saying bismillah, shaytan would have partaken from it (Muslim).
This is why the plates/bowls of the prophetic period were usually large enough to hold a serving
for 5-6 people. Let us examine some of these plates/bowls cited in the hadith. In Fiqh al-Lugha,
Allama Tha‘labi says that the bowls and plates from which the Arabs ate were carved from wood.
BOWLS & PLATES
Jafna was the largest of bowls which could feed over
ten people. According to a hadith in Muslim, it was
once used on an expedition when the Sahaba l ran
out of water and they informed the Prophet a of their
predicament. The Prophet a said, “Call for the jafna,
Jabir!” The Prophet a then spread his fingers wide
apart and put his hand into the bottom of the jafna.
Then he said, “Take the jafna, Jabir, and pour it over me
and say bismillah.” Jabir g says, “I did so and said bismillah,
and then I saw water gushing from between his
fingers. Then the jafna gushed with water until it was
full.” The whole expedition came and drank to their fill.
Qas‘a is the second of the largest bowls which could
feed from seven to ten men. Once, a tailor invited the
Prophet a for a meal that he himself had prepared.
Anas bin Malik g says, “I accompanied the Prophet a
to the invitation. The host presented bread and curry
with pieces of squash in it to the Prophet a. I saw
the Prophet a searching for the pieces of squash from
around the edges of the qas‘a” (Bukhari).
Qas‘a is also a generic term for any wide bowl that is
used to eat food in.
16 November – December 2021 | AL-MADINAH