Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
Drinking water while sitting is desirable but not obligatory. Prophet Muhammad sometimes drank water while standing to explain that doing so is permissible.
Answering your question about drinking water while standing, the eminent Muslim scholar, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Hanooti, the late member of the North American Fiqh Council, states:
A Muslim is allowed to drink water in any position he/she likes. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was seen drinking Zamzam water standing up. The great Companions of the Prophet used to drink water standing up. Both the two directions are advocated by narrations to make it optional.
In one narration, Prophet Muhammad told people not to drink water standing up. There are two opinions in interpretation of this hadith. Some scholars take this hadith literally and say that drinking water while standing up is haram.
However, other responded saying that sighting the Prophet drinking water during Hajj while he is standing up is an answer. There is no room when he does that openly to say that the ruling is exceptional to him. We don’t have an evidence for an exception. It is possible to say that it is better for you to drink water sitting, but not standing.
Sheikh Atiyyah Saqr, the late head of Al-Azhar Fatwa Committee, adds:
Imam Muslim reported that the Prophet said “None of you should drink water while standing; and if anyone forgets, he must vomit.”
It was the Prophet’s habit to drink water while sitting. However, it is reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim that he was given Zamzam water and he drank it while standing.
Reconciling these two seemingly conflicting hadiths is possible and none of them abrogates the other. Drinking water while sitting is desirable but not obligatory and that is why the Prophet sometimes drank water while standing to explain that doing so is permissible.
Yet, it is better to drink water while sitting. It is also authenticated that some of the Prophet’s Companions, particularly the Rightly Guided Caliphs, drank water while standing.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.