Ruling on putting flowers and plants in the bathroom

Question

Praise be to Allah.

There is nothing wrong with
putting flowers, plants and tree seedlings in bathrooms, so long as there is
no extravagance or waste involved in that, both of which are blameworthy.
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And let not your hand
be tied (like a miser) to your neck, nor stretch it forth to its utmost
reach (like a spendthrift), so that you become blameworthy and in severe
poverty”

[al-Isra’ 17:29].

This is a prohibition on
both miserliness and extravagance.

And Allaah says
(interpretation of the meaning):

“and waste not by
extravagance. Verily, He likes not Al‑Musrifoon (those who waste by
extravagance)”

[al-An’aam 6:141]

“And give to the kinsman
his due and to the Miskeen (poor) and to the wayfarer. But spend not
wastefully (your wealth) in the manner of a spendthrift.

27. Verily, the
spendthrifts are brothers of the Shayaateen (devils), and the Shaytaan
(Devil‑Satan) is ever ungrateful to his Lord”
[al-Isra’ 17:26, 27]

Extravagance means spending
too much money on permissible things, and waste means spending money on
things that are inappropriate.

Al-‘Askari said:

It is said that waste means
spending money on things that are inappropriate and extravagance means
spending too much on things that are inappropriate.

In other words,
extravagance means overstepping the mark in spending money, and waste means
spending it inappropriately, which is worse than extravagance. Hence Allaah
says: “Verily, the spendthrifts are brothers of the Shayaateen (devils).”

And it was said that
extravagance (israaf) is not just in terms of money, rather it
applies to everything that is done inappropriately. Do you not see that
Allaah described the people of Loot as being extravagant because they put
their seed in a place that is not for tilling. Allaah says (interpretation
of the meaning):

“Verily, you practise
your lusts on men instead of women. Nay, but you are a people transgressing
beyond bounds [musrifoon] (by committing great sins)”

[al-A’raaf 7:81]

And He described Pharaoh as
being extravagant, as He says (interpretation of the meaning):

“verily, he was arrogant
and was of the Musrifoon (those who transgress beyond bound in spending and
other things and commit great sins)”

[al-Dukhaan 44:31]

Then he said:

From these texts we learn
that extravagance (israaf) is of two types: haraam and makrooh.

The first kind includes
wasting money etc on things beyond the norm.

The second kind includes
wasting something useful for no purpose, such as pouring away what is left
of a drink of the water of the Euphrates etc without putting it back into
the water. End quote from al-Furooq al-Lughawiyyah, p. 114-115.

See also Fayd al-Qadeer
(1/50) and al-Mawsoo’ah al-Fiqhiyyah al-Kuwaitiyyah (4/176).

Examples of extravagance
include: buying something decorative for hundreds of riyals, because
adornment is allowed but paying a lot of money for it is blameworthy
extravagance.

An example of waste is
buying something that is of no value or that will not last, for a large
amount of money.

This, like the example
given above, comes under the heading of wasting money that is forbidden in
Islam: “Allaah hates three things for you: gossip, wasting money and asking
too much.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari (1477) and Muslim (593).

Conclusion: we must beware
of both things and realize that wealth is a blessing that should be guarded;
we will be asked about this wealth tomorrow: “From where did he earn it and
on what did he spend it?” as it says in Sunan al-Tirmidhi (2416) from
the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).

We ask Allaah to keep us
safe by His bounty and grace.

And Allaah knows best.