Question
Please clarify the use of our left hand while we eat or drink? Can we, while drinking water in a glass, use our left hand?
Answer
While explaining the sunnah of eating and drinking with the right hand Mr Ghamidi
Declaring Allah’s name before eating and drinking and using the right hand for the purpose: The first of these is to express gratitude to Allah for His bounties and to invoke His blessings and the second is to constantly remind us that those who are bestowed with the favours of Paradise will receive their account in their right hand on the Day of Judgement. In other words, when a true believer uses his right hand while eating and drinking, he symbolically expresses his desire to be among the (companions of the right hand) on the Day of Judgement. The Prophet (sws) has directed us to follow thisSunnah of the Prophets in the following words:
إِذَا أَكَلَ أَحَدُكُمْ طَعَامًا فَلْيَقُلْ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ فَإِنْ نَسِيَ فِي أَوَّلِهِ فَلْيَقُلْ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ فِي أَوَّلِهِ وَآخِرِهِ
When anyone among you is about to eat food, he should say bismillah.If he forgets to say it at the beginning and [remembers it later on while eating], he should say: “In the name of Allah both at the beginning and at the end.”
إِذَا أَكَلَ أَحَدُكُمْ فَلْيَأْكُلْ بِيَمِينِهِ وَإِذَا شَرِبَ فَلْيَشْرَبْ بِيَمِينِهِ
When anyone among you eats, he should eat with the right hand and when he drinks, he should drink with the right hand.
This shows that it is a very important sunnah. Believers follow it with great care. However, it does not mean that while eating or drinking we use left hand accidently or occasionally it would not be halal for us. Rather as a general rule we should follow the sunnah.
Answered by: Tariq Mahmood Hashmi
Date: 2014-11-10
