A narration that Huthayfah picked up a fallen morsel and ate it
9-8-2009 | IslamWeb
Question:
Salaam Alaikum Wa Rahmatullaah,
Dear Sheikh,
Could you kindly provide me the source & reference to the below incident, as I couldn't find any reference to it on the internet?
Once the senior Sahaabi, Hadhrat Huzaifah (radhiyallahu anhu) together with some other Muslims were invited by the Christian king of Irbal for meals. While eating, a morsel of food slipped from Hadhrat Huzaifah's hand. He picked it up and while he was cleaning it with his hand, a colleague commented that the king and his noblemen will gain a bad impression of Muslims. Hadhrat Huzaifah (radhiyallahu anhu) sharply reprimanding his colleague said: "Shall I abandon the Sunnat of my Beloved for the sake of these fools?" He then proceeded to eat the morsel of food.
Your reply would be highly appreciated, as I am too desperate to know it, for the purpose of conveying this message.
Jazaak Allaahu Khairan
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.
That story, according to the sources we have read, is narrated on the authority of Ma‘qil Ibn Yasaar, and not Huthayfah 
. It is narrated in Sunan Ibn Maajah on the authority of Ma‘qil Ibn Yasaar 
that once, he was having his lunch when a morsel fell down from him. He picked it up, removed what got stuck to it, and ate it. On that, the dihqaans (village chiefs in Persia/ancient Iran) exchanged derisive glances, thereupon it was said to him: “May Allaah reform the Commander of the believers! Those dihqaans exchanged derisive glances because of your picking up the morsel which fell, even though you have all of this food in front of you.” He said: “I am not to leave what I heard from the Messenger of Allaah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, to please those non-Arabs! He used to order anyone of us that when his morsel fell, he should pick it up, remove what got stuck to it, and eat it, and not to leave it to Satan.”
In his comment on this narration, Al-Albaani 
says: “It is weak in its chain of narrators, and the Marfoo’ (the part of this narration which is attributed to the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is authentic on the authority of both Jaabir and Anas .”