{"id":3126,"date":"2018-04-18T12:21:15","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T17:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/?p=3126"},"modified":"2018-04-18T12:21:15","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T17:21:15","slug":"right-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/right-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"Right Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why is the right hand preferred over the left hand when greeting, eating and in other cases? What is wrong with using the left hand for these purposes?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is part of Allaah\u2019s complete blessing upon us and the perfection of this great religion, that Islam organizes all aspects of our lives. There is nothing good but it has shown it to us, and there is nothing bad but it has warned us against it. As well as beliefs, acts of worship, interactions with others and morals and manners, that also includes our private affairs in which Islam shows us the way that is befitting to man\u2019s noble status and the way in which Allaah has honoured him. That includes the way the Muslim eats and drinks, and so on.<\/p>\n

This is an established principle in sharee\u2019ah: that which has to do with honour and nobility, such as putting on one’s garment and pants and shoes, entering the mosque, using the siwaak, putting on kohl, clipping the nails, trimming the moustache, combing the hair, plucking the armpit hair, shaving the head, saying salaam at the end of prayer, washing the limbs when purifying oneself, exiting the toilet, eating and drinking, shaking hands, touching the Black Stone, etc are all things which it is mustahabb to start on the right or use the right hand. As for things which are the opposite, such as entering the toilet, exiting the mosque, blowing one\u2019s nose, cleaning oneself after using the toilet, taking off one\u2019s garment, pants and shoes, and so on, it is mustahabb to start on the left or use the left hand. All of that is because the right hand is more noble and honoured. This was stated by al-Nawawi in Sharh Saheeh Muslim<\/i>. There is a great deal of evidence to support this principle, such as the following:<\/p>\n

In al-Saheehayn<\/i> it is narrated that \u2018Umar ibn Salamah (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: \u201cO young boy, say the name of Allaah and eat with your right hand, and eat from what is nearest to you.\u201d Narrated by al-Bukhaari (5376) and Muslim (2022).<\/p>\n

In Saheeh Muslim<\/i> (2021) it is narrated that a man ate with his left hand in the presence of the Messenger of Allaah (S). He said: \u201cEat with your right hand.\u201d He said: I cannot. He said: \u201cMay you never be able to,\u201d for nothing was preventing him from doing so but arrogance. And he never raised it to his mouth again.<\/p>\n

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) prayed against him so that what he claimed of not being able to do it would come true, because he was too arrogant to follow the truth and he did not observe proper etiquette with the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and his excuse was a lie, and lying to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) is not like lying to anyone else.<\/p>\n

In Sunan Abi Dawood<\/i> (33) it is narrated that \u2018Aa\u2019ishah (may Allaah be pleased with her) said: The right hand of the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was for his purification and food, and his left hand was for using the toilet and anything that was dirty. Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Abi Dawood<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Muslim (262) narrated that Salmaan (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: He (meaning the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)) forbade any one of us to clean himself with his right hand.<\/p>\n

And Muslim (2020) narrated from Ibn \u2018Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: \u201cNo one among you should eat with his left hand or drink with it, for the shaytaan eats with his left hand and drinks with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allaah has warned us against disobeying the commands of the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), as He says (interpretation of the meaning):<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd let those who oppose the Messenger\u2019s (Muhammad\u2019s) commandment (i.e. his Sunnah __ legal ways, orders, acts of worship, statements) (among the sects) beware, lest some Fitnah (disbelief, trials, afflictions, earthquakes, killing, overpowered by a tyrant) should befall them or a painful torment be inflicted on them\u201d <\/i>[al-Noor 24:63]<\/i>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This applies if one is able to eat with the right hand. But if one is unable to do so, there is no sin in that. Al-Nawawi said in Sharh Muslim<\/i> (13\/191): The objection to eating and drinking with the left hand applies so long as there is no excuse. If there is an excuse which prevents one from eating and drinking with the right hand because of sickness, injury etc, then it is not makrooh. End quote.<\/p>\n

Al-Ghazaali said in al-Ihya\u2019<\/i> (4\/93): Then the One Who gave you two hands to do things with, some of which are noble, such as picking up the Mus-haf, and some are ignoble, such as removing impurities. So if you pick up the Mus-haf with your left hand, and you remove impurities with your right hand, then you have used that which is noble to do something ignoble, and you have neglected its rights and wronged it, and turned away from what is proper. End quote.<\/p>\n

To sum up what the scholars have said about the reasons why the right hand is preferred for things that are noble:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. That is differing from the shaytaan, as in the case of eating and drinking.<\/li>\n
  2. It is honouring the right hand over the left.<\/li>\n
  3. It is using proper etiquette with people, so that one does not shake hands with them, take things from them or give things to them with the hand with which one removes impurities.<\/li>\n
  4. It is a sign of hope that Allaah will make us among those who are on the right hand (ahl al-yameen).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And Allaah knows best.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Source: https:\/\/islamqa.info\/en\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Why is the right hand preferred over the left hand when greeting, eating and in other cases? What is wrong with using the left hand for these purposes? It is part of Allaah\u2019s complete blessing upon us and the perfection of this great religion, that Islam organizes all aspects of our lives. There is nothing … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-article"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Right-Hand.jpg","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Right-Hand.jpg",1080,675,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Right-Hand-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Right-Hand-300x188.jpg",300,188,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Right-Hand-768x480.jpg",768,480,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Right-Hand-1024x640.jpg",1024,640,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Right-Hand.jpg",1080,675,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Right-Hand.jpg",1080,675,false],"gform-image-choice-sm":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Right-Hand.jpg",300,188,false],"gform-image-choice-md":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Right-Hand.jpg",400,250,false],"gform-image-choice-lg":["https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Right-Hand.jpg",600,375,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Site Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/author\/admin2\/"},"uagb_comment_info":4,"uagb_excerpt":"Why is the right hand preferred over the left hand when greeting, eating and in other cases? What is wrong with using the left hand for these purposes? It is part of Allaah\u2019s complete blessing upon us and the perfection of this great religion, that Islam organizes all aspects of our lives. There is nothing…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcT0IL-Oq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8590,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/jonathan-abdilla-ex-christ-canada\/","url_meta":{"origin":3126,"position":0},"title":"Jonathan Abdilla, Ex-Christ, Canada","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Ich f\u00fchle mich geehrt, ein Muslim zu sein\u2026Und so f\u00fchle ich mich aus verschiedenen Gr\u00fcnden. Es gibt viele Normen in der Gesellschaft, in der ich lebe, die genau das Gegenteil dessen sind, wie Muslime es tun. Und als ich zuerst zu dieser Lebensweise kam, wusste ich nicht so genau wie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "WARUM WURDE ICH MUSLIM"","block_context":{"text":"WARUM WURDE ICH MUSLIM","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/category\/warum-wurde-ich-muslim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8672,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/kommentare-der-wissenschaftler-ueber-die-wissenschaftlichen-wunder-im-heiligen-quran\/","url_meta":{"origin":3126,"position":1},"title":"Kommentare der Wissenschaftler \u00fcber die wissenschaftlichen Wunder im Heiligen Quran","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Es folgen einige Kommentare von Wissenschaftlern[1] \u00fcber die wissenschaftlichen Wunder im Heiligen Quran. All diese Kommentare wurden von der Videoaufnahme Dies ist die Wahrheit \u00fcbernommen. In dieser Videoaufnahme kann man die Wissenschaftler h\u00f6ren und sehen, die sich folgenderma\u00dfen \u00e4u\u00dferten. (Um das RealPlayer-Video f\u00fcr einen Kommentar zu sehen, klicken Sie auf\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "WISSENSCHAFTLICHE WUNDER"","block_context":{"text":"WISSENSCHAFTLICHE WUNDER","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/category\/wissenschaftliche-wunder\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8524,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/die-erhaltung-des-quran\/","url_meta":{"origin":3126,"position":2},"title":"Die Erhaltung des Quran","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Auswendiglernen Der pr\u00e4chtige Quran, die religi\u00f6se Schrift der Muslime, wurde dem Propheten Muhammad, m\u00f6ge Gott ihn loben, auf arabisch durch den Engel Gabriel offenbart. Die Offenbarung fand St\u00fcck f\u00fcr St\u00fcck \u00fcber einen Zeitraum von 23 Jahren statt, manchmal in kurzen Versen und manchmal in l\u00e4ngeren Abschnitten.[1] Der Quran (\u201clesen\u201d oder\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\u00dcber den Heiligen Quran"","block_context":{"text":"\u00dcber den Heiligen Quran","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/category\/ueber-den-heiligen-quran\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8602,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/steinmann-ex-secularist-uk\/","url_meta":{"origin":3126,"position":3},"title":"Steinmann, Ex-Secularist, UK","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Keine andere Religion, die von so einer gro\u00dfen Gemeinschaft bezeugt wird, habe ich so verst\u00e4ndlich und ermutigend gefunden. Es scheint keinen besseren Weg zur Seelenruhe und zur Zufriedenheit im Leben zu geben, kein gr\u00f6\u00dferes Versprechen f\u00fcr die Zukunft nach dem Tod. Das menschliche Wesen ist Teil eines Ganzen; der Mensch\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "WARUM WURDE ICH MUSLIM"","block_context":{"text":"WARUM WURDE ICH MUSLIM","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/category\/warum-wurde-ich-muslim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8664,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/die-erdatmosphaere\/","url_meta":{"origin":3126,"position":4},"title":"Die Erdatmosph\u00e4re","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cBeim Himmel mit seiner Wiederkehr.\u201d (Quran 86:11) \u201c[Er] Der euch die Erde zu einer Ruhest\u00e4tte und den Himmel zu einem Bau gemacht hat... \u201d (Quran 2:22) Im ersten Vers schw\u00f6rt Gott beim Himmel[1] und seiner Funktion des Wiederkehrens ohne genau zu sagen, was wiederkehrt. In der islamischen Rechtslehre zeigt ein\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "WISSENSCHAFTLICHE WUNDER"","block_context":{"text":"WISSENSCHAFTLICHE WUNDER","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/category\/wissenschaftliche-wunder\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8663,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/die-sieben-erden\/","url_meta":{"origin":3126,"position":5},"title":"Die sieben Erden","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Ein einfaches Bild der Erde und der innren Schichten. Windows to the Universe, at (http:\/\/www.windows.ucar.edu) at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). \u00a91995-1999, 2000 The Regents of the University of Michigan; \u00a92000-05 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Die Sunnah des Propheten Muhammad stellt die zweite \u00fcberlieferte Quelle des Islam\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "WISSENSCHAFTLICHE WUNDER"","block_context":{"text":"WISSENSCHAFTLICHE WUNDER","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/de\/category\/wissenschaftliche-wunder\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3128,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126\/revisions\/3128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}