النهي عن النفخ في الإناء

Not Breathing or Blowing into Food or Drink

Therapeutic Practice Hygiene & Prevention

A prohibition on breathing into a cup while drinking from it or blowing directly onto food or drink to cool it.

hasan graded

نَهَى أَنْ يُتَنَفَّسَ فِي الْإِنَاءِ أَوْ يُنْفَخَ فِيهِ

“He forbade breathing into a vessel [while drinking] or blowing into it.” (meaning, not a literal translation)

Sunan Abi Dawud 3728; Sunan al-Tirmidhi 1888 Hasan

This pairs naturally with the drinking-in-sips entry elsewhere on this site: the recommended method is to remove the cup from the mouth entirely between sips, breathing away from the vessel, rather than breathing directly into it as one drinks.

Ibn al-Qayyim's Commentary

Commentators read this straightforwardly as hygiene — avoiding the transfer of saliva and breath-borne particles into shared food and drink, a principle modern food safety fully endorses. Ibn al-Qayyim groups this with other vessel-related hygiene instructions in the tradition, treating protection of shared food and drink as a recurring practical theme.

What Modern Research Notes

Modern food safety guidance similarly discourages blowing on hot food to cool it or breathing directly into shared containers, for the same underlying reason — reducing the transfer of respiratory droplets into something others will consume.

Caution

None; consistent with modern food-safety guidance.