Etiquette whilst eating

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1 – Eating with the right hand. It is obligatory for the Muslim to eat with his right hand. It was narrated from Ibn ‘Umar (رضي الله عنه) that the Prophet (ﷺ) said: “No one among you should eat with his left hand, or drink with it, as the Shaytan eats with his left hand and drinks with it.” 

(Narrated by Muslim, 2020). 

This applies unless there is a valid excuse; if a person has an excuse for not eating and drinking with his right hand, such as sickness or injury etc., then there is nothing wrong with his eating with his left hand. 

The hadeeth indicates that a person should avoid doing actions that resemble the actions of the Shaytaan, one of them is eating with left hand. 

2 – Eating from what is directly in front of one. It is Sunnah for a person to eat from the food that is directly in front of him, because the Prophet (ﷺ) said to ‘Umar ibn Abi Salamah, “O young boy, say Bismillah, eat with your right hand, and eat from what is directly in front of you.” 

(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 3576; Muslim, 2022). 

For a person to eat from his companion’s place is bad manners and impolite. His companion may find this off-putting, especially if the food is soupy etc. That is because Ibn ‘Abbas narrated that the Prophet (ﷺ) said: “The blessing descends in the middle of the food, so eat from the edges and do not eat from the middle.” 

(Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 1805; Ibn Maajah, 3277. Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Jaami’,

3 – Eating with three fingers. The Sunnah is to eat with three fingers; eating with more than three fingers is a sign of greed and is bad manners, because there is no need for more than three in order to gather up a date. Unless, like Malaysian, we are eating rice. That is why it is Sunnah to iftar with 3 pieces of dates. Then, eat the rice if you want. This applies if a person is eating with his hand. But there is nothing wrong with using a spoon etc, as we shall see below. 

4 – Eating a piece of food that falls on the floor. If a piece of food falls on the floor, then the person eating should remove any dirt on the food and eat it, because he does not know where the blessing is in his food; it may be in the piece that fell, and leaving it makes a person miss out on the blessing of the food. Anas ibn Maalik narrated that when the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) ate, he would lick his three fingers. Anas said: “And he said, ‘If any one of you drops a piece of food, let him remove any dirt from it and eat it, and not leave it for the Shaytaan.’ And he commanded us to clean the plate, and said, ‘For you do not know where in your food the blessing is.’” (Narrated by Muslim, 2034). 

-Islam is the way of life-