Adult brothers and sisters sharing the same room

25-4-2014 | IslamWeb

Question:

Does Islam allows sharing rooms (sharing closet,study table,dressing table,bathrooms attached in the room) between siblings (already adult) , for both sex, but not sleeping together in one time?

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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 is His slave and Messenger.

It is permissible for brothers and sisters to share one closet, one bathroom, as well as sleep in one room as long as each of them is in a separate bed, as the Sharee’ah did not prohibit this as far as we know. Rather, the Sharee’ah only stipulated separating between them in beds as in the Hadeeth which reads: “Order your children to perform the prayer when they are seven and beat them if they neglect to do so when they are ten, and separate between them in beds." [Ahmad, Abu Daawood, and others]

The scholars explained this to mean that each child should sleep in a separate bed. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 87009.

Some scholars said that separating between them in beds is achieved in two ways:

1- That each of them has a separate bed.

2- Or, that they are in one bed but they are separate and not adjacent to each other.

There is no doubt that it is more appropriate that each of them is in a separate bed, and it is better that the males are in one room and the females are in another room. This is better for concealing the ‘Awrah and preserving bashfulness, especially at this time and age, when the Fitrah of many people has deteriorated and desires have dominated. Ibn ‘Aabideen said in his commentary on the children of his time and confirming the segregation between them in beds: "...especially regarding the children of this time, as they know dissoluteness more than the adults!"

We believe that the children of our time are more aware of dissoluteness than the children of Ibn ‘Aabideen’s time .

Allaah Knows best.