Etiquette of the Road in the Quran & Sunnah

1. Walk with moderation, and lower your voice.

Allah says:

وَٱقْصِدْ فِى مَشْيِكَ وَٱغْضُضْ مِن صَوْتِكَ ۚ إِنَّ أَنكَرَ ٱلْأَصْوَٰتِ لَصَوْتُ ٱلْحَمِيرِ

and be moderate in your walk, and lower your voice. Surely, the ugliest of voices is the voice of the donkeys.” (Surah Luqman 31:19)

Lesson: Luqman’s advice joins the two road manners: no strutting arrogance in the walk, and no harsh loudness in the voice — “the harshest of sounds is the braying of the donkey.”

1. If you sit on the road, give the road its rights.

“Beware of sitting on the roads.” They said: we cannot help it, it is where we talk. He said: “If you must, then give the road its right.” They asked: what is its right? He said: “Lowering the gaze, withholding harm, returning the salam, enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil.”

2. Clearing harm from the road is charity.

Counting the daily charities, the Prophet ﷺ said: “...and your removing a stone, a thorn, or a bone from the road is charity for you.” A blocked, broken or dangerous path is the believer’s business to clear — before someone is harmed on it.

3. Guide the one who asks you the way.

In Abu Dawud’s narration of the rights of the road, the Prophet ﷺ added: “and guiding the people on their way” — pointing a traveller right is one of the road’s dues.

4. Help a person with his mount and his load — it is the charity your joints owe every day.

“Charity is due from every joint... and that you help a man concerning his riding animal — carrying him on it or lifting his goods onto it — is charity.” On today’s roads: helping with a vehicle, a load, or a broken-down traveller.

5. Keep people safe from your tongue and your hand.

“A Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand the Muslims are safe.” No abuse shouted at strangers, no reckless driving, no endangering anyone who shares the road with you.

6. Be gentle on the road — Allah is Gentle and loves gentleness in everything.

“Allah is Gentle (Rafiq) and loves gentleness in all matters.” Anger, racing and road rage have no share in the manners of the road.

7. Do not narrow the road for people or block their way.

Withholding harm — from the very list of the road’s rights — includes not parking across the path, not dumping what obstructs it, and not gathering where people must squeeze past.

8. Never relieve yourself where people walk, drink or take shade.

The Prophet ﷺ said: “Be on your guard against the three things which provoke cursing: relieving oneself in the watering places, on the thoroughfares, and in the shade (where people rest).”