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Eating with hands 

Answered as per Shafi'i Fiqh by Qibla.com

Answered by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed

What is the ruling on eating with the hands? What if one wants to use the left hand for assistance when necessary?

Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Eating directly with the hand is an established action of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, so it is a sunna. And the sunna is to eat with the right, to wash it before eating and afterwards, and to use three fingers as he did, peace and blessings be upon him.

As for using the left hand to eat, it is disliked, even if for assistance, as our imams have stated, unless there is some hardship in using the right hand, such as it being broken, or another similar excuse that causes difficulty in using it to eat with. As for using the left hand only to add food to a morsel, as is the habit with many people, that is not an excuse, and Allah knows best.

As for using something other than the hand for eating, such as spoons, there is no problem with that, as long as it doesn’t get affected with saliva that is then returned into the food, or if [s. using something other than the hand] is out of arrogance or imitation of non-Muslims. If any of that is involved, it is considered a reprehensible innovation, as Shaykh Ibn Hajar said in the Fatawa.

– Amjad Rasheed

(Translated by Shazia Ahmad)

السؤال: ما حكم الأكل باليدين ؟ كيف لو كان استعمال اليسار على وجه الإعانة عند الحاجة ؟ الجواب : مباشرة الأكل باليد هو الثابتُ من فعل النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم فهو سنة ، والسنةُ أن يأكل باليمين ، وأن يغسلها قبل الأكل وبعده ، وأن يأكل بثلاث أصابع كما فعله عليه الصلاة والسلام . أما استعمال اليسار في الأكل فهو مكروه ولو على وجه الإعانة كما أطلقه أئمتنا إلا أن يكون هناك مشقة في استعمال اليمين ككسر ونحوه من الأعذار التي يشق معها الأكل باليمين ، أما استعمال اليسار لمجرد إلحاق الطعام بالطعام كما هو عادة كثيرين من الناس فليس بعذر ، والله أعلم . وأما استعمالُ غير اليد في الأكل كما في الملاعق فلا شيء فيه ، ما لم يكن يصيبها شيءٌ من اللعاب ثم يردها إلى الطعام أو كان فيه نوعُ تكبرٍ أو تشبهٍ بغير المسلمين ، وإلا فهو بدعة قبيحة كما قال الشيخ ابن حجر في “الفتاوى” .

This answer was indexed from Qibla.com, which used to have a repository of Islamic Q&A answered by various scholars. The website is no longer in existence. It has now been transformed into a learning portal with paid Islamic course offering under the brand of Kiflayn.

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