Aslam

Don't invite other than religious men and don't invite the transgressors . The Prophet once prayed for a person thus : Let your food be eaten by religious men He said : Don't eat except the food of religious men and don't give your food to be eaten except by the religious men and invite the poor. The Prophet said : The worst feast is that of marriage where the rich are invited and not the poor. Don't neglect the relatives in feasts as neglecting them produces their displeasure and the evils of the tie of relationship .
Treat with the friends and acquaintances in such a manner as no other people are dissatisfied if special persons are invited.
Follow the ways of the Prophet in feeding and incur the pleasure of the believers. Don't invite such a person who will not join a feast or the guests may suffer owing to his presence. Don't invite except one who willingly accepts invitation. The sage Sufyan Saori said : He who invites a person who does not accept it commits sin. If the latter accepts the invitation at last, he commits two sins as he comes to him inspite of his unwillingness. If a religious man is fed, it helps his religion; and if a sinner is fed, it helps sin.

FIVE RULES OF ACCEPTANCE OF INVITATIONS

To accept invitation is sunnat or the practice of the Prophet.
Some say it is compulsory. The Prophet said : If I am asked to eat goat's thigh, I shall accept it. There are five rules of accepting invitation . (1) Don't distinguish between the poor and the rich. It appertains to pride and is prohibited. For this reason, those who accept the invitation of the rich in comparison with that of the poor appertain to the class of proud people and are opprosed to the ways of the Prophet . The Prophet used to accept the invitation of the slaves and the poor. Once Hasan, son of Hazrat

Vol-II The Book of Wordly Usages 15

Ali, was passing by a group of poor people who were begging by the side of a path way and were eating food in a dusty place.
Hazrat Hasan was riding on a camel. They said : O grandson of the Prophet , join us in our food. He at once got down, sat with them on the ground, ate food with them and them rode upon his camel and said: I accepted your invitation. Now accept my invitation. They accepted it and he entertained them on a fixed date.

(2) Invitation should not be refused for distance. There is written in the Torah : Go to see a sick man even to a distance of one mile. Join a funeral prayer even to the of three miles and meet with a friend for the sake of God even to the distance of four miles. The Prophet said : Had I been invited to a place in the village of Gamim (It is several miles off from Medinah), I would have accepted it. The Prophet once broke fast there in Ramzan and made his prayer short.