When a Muslim Declines Your House Invitation...

    A Muslim's life revolves around serving Allah (SWT) and obeying the edicts of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). Everything else, irrespective of its human importance or its gravity in people's eyes, is secondary.

    So, when you invite a Muslim to your house, especially to sleep over, anticipate that the invitation would be kindly or subtly declined. This by no means shows disrespect nor lack of love for you, the host. In fact, this may actually indicate that they cared enough about you to not wish to trouble you as shall be expounded upon below.

    Here are items that a Muslim's mind thinks about immediately as they ponder, "Should I go or should I stay?" in response to an invitation (I shall focus on a sleepover):

• Is there alcohol?
• Is there pork?
• Is there a dog?
• Is there a bidet or an equivalent tool that does its function?
• Is there a space that is useful as a salat (Muslim prayer) space?
• Are the sofa and the seating spaces najas* (impure)?
• Are all the eating and cooking vessels used for pork-containing meals, past as well as present?
• Is the sleeping space najas (impure)?
• How close is the sleeping space to the bathroom?
• Late night prayers and Qur'an Reading, are they going to interfere with my hosts' sleep patterns?
• Fajr (dawn prayer, which can be any time between 4:00 AM to 6:30 AM depending on the local) and Qur'an Reading, are they going to wake my hosts up?
• Is the living arrangement of the hosting family in conflict with well established Islamic norms and values (i.e. Halal or Haram)?
• How is the level of indecency in the hosts' or their guests' attires?
• The source of the wealth of the hosts, Halal or Haram?  

    A typical Muslim fully realizes that such matters are not going to be that easy for any host to adhere to and as such opts to decline rather than subject them to all or even a portion of the above. Is there a compromise that the host and guest may reach to facilitate the stay? The answer is most likely not because a true Muslim would not compromise when it comes to matters that put Allah (SWT) and His beloved Prophet (PBUH)'s precedence before anyone else including closest of family members.

Of course, the above does not mean that Muslims are aloof and unfriendly people. In fact, generosity is the staple of all Muslim societies. A true Muslim is more likely to invite everyone, including non-Muslims to their house. In addition, they would shower them with the kind of generosity and host qualities that they would never imagine. They would feed them, house them, and treat them not just as mere hosts but rather as family members during their whole stay. 

* najas refers to impurity in the Islamic sense. This includes any spaces that are trafficked by dogs, pigs, and humans whose bodily fluids touched such spaces. Bodily fluids include blood, saliva, semen, sweat, and urine.