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Fatwa CenterUse of left hand and left-handed people
Question
What does the Prophet Muhammad, may his soul be blessed, say about the use of the left hand for left handed people? Am I, as a left-handed person, supposed to avoid using the left hand to eat or during 'wudu', for example?
Answer
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
The Prophet Muhammad (Blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) preferred to start when doing anything by his right as long as he could, such as in his wudu, his ghusl, his wearing his shoes, his walking as mentioned in the Sound Collection of Hadith of Ibn Hibban, Ibn Khuazimiah and Ahmad from the Hadith of Aisha (
). He also used to tell people to eat with their right hands. al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated from Amr Ibn Abu Salama that the Prophet Muhammad (Blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said to him: "O boy! (Say Bismillah) in the name of Allah, eat with your right hand and eat from what is in your side". Muslim also narrated from Salamata Ibn Alakwaa, who related that "A person started eating with his left hand in the presence of the Beloved Prophet (Blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) who asked him to eat with his right hand. He said, 'I am unable to do so'. It was simply his insolence that prevented him to obey the orders of the Beloved Prophet (Blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) . After this it so happened that the said man could not raise his hand up to his mouth". The Muslim should follow the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (Blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) copy his style and abide by his orders in everything, be it small or big. It is forbidden to go against the Prophetic Sunnah or to prefer anything to it, above all in something where there is a clear order like : eating with the right hand. Moreover, practice makes perfect and looking at an order as an obligation and neglecting it as forbidden makes things much easier to be followed. If the person, however, does a mistake unintentionally, he is excused. But he should give up doing it again and ask Allah to forgive him from what he has done as soon as he remembers it. And Allah knows best.
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