Sunnahs of Entering and Leaving the toilet

The Sunnah way of Entering and leaving the toilets or bathroom:

 1- Du’aa before entering the toilet:

 اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْخُبُثِ وَالْخَبَائِثِ

 “Allah, I seek protection in You from the male and female devils.”

(Al Bukhari 142, Muslim 375)

 The wisdom behind this sunnah:

       A toilet is a filthy place where the devils dominate by Allaah’s will and one should not verbally remember Allah in the toilet, so the Shaytaan takes advantage if one does not remember Him, because the remembrance of Allaah drives them away. So the command to seek refuge with Allaah before that means that one will be protected from the shaytaan until he comes out.

2-Entering with left foot: Enter in the toilet with the left foot first and exiting with the right one (There is no particular evidence for this sunnah exactly! but scholars agree that we should use the right as general for all good things, and use left for other. Narrated by Hafsa, ”That Prophet (SAWW) used his right hand for taking his food and drink and used his left hand for other purposes”, and so from the sunnah using right foot to entering the mosque and left one to get out of it, so it's a reverse qiyas.)

3- Exit Du’aa:

  ‘Aa’ishah narrated: When the Prophet (SAWW) exited the toilet, he used to say “Ghufraanaka”.  

غُفْرَانَكَ

“I seek your forgiveness”. (Abou Dawood 30)

4-Do not face towards Qibla:

 Narrated by Abu Aiyub Al Ansari

Allah's Messenger (saws) said, "If anyone of you goes to an open space* for answering the call of nature he should neither face nor turn his back towards the Qibla. (Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 1.146)

(*Ruling is same for in the house/ toilet.)

5-Use left hand for cleaning:

Narrated by Abu Hurairah,

"The Messenger of Allah (SAWW) said: 'When any one of you cleans himself, he should not clean himself with his right hand. Let him clean himself with his left hand.'" (Hasan)  (Ibn Majjah, 312)

6- Purify yourself after relieving:

When a person relieves himself, he must cleanse himself of impurities either with water, which is best and most perfect or with something other than water which will remove the impurities, such as toilet paper, fabric, stones or something else. ( Muslim 271, 262)