His statement, “with three fingers,” means that one should eat with three fingers: the thumb, middle finger, and forefinger, when possible. But if it is not possible to eat with three fingers—as with rice, for example—then he should eat with however many he can. This is established in the sunnah, for eating with all one’s fingers indicates greed and gluttony, especially when one is with others.

Remarkably, some people have inferred from this text that meat should be eaten with a fork and other food with a spoon. They say: “Because he holds the fork with three fingers, and the spoon with three fingers.” Glory be to Allah! Nothing harms us today except mistaken understandings. This cannot be described as eating with the fingers; rather, it is eating with a fork or a spoon. Although the scholars stated that one should eat with three fingers, they also said that there is no harm in eating with a spoon. The commentator on al-Iqnaʿ said: “It may perhaps be inferred from Imam Ahmad’s statement, ‘I dislike every innovation,’ that eating with a spoon is disliked,” because it is an innovation. Yet we do not consider eating with a spoon to be disliked; however, we do not consider eating with it to constitute eating with three fingers.

The correct view, then, is that there is no harm in eating with a spoon, especially when there is a need for it. Someone told me about a person of standing who was with a group eating with spoons while he ate with his hand. They said to him, “So-and-so, why do you not eat with a spoon?” He replied, “I eat with a spoon that no one but I eats with, whereas you eat with a spoon that everyone eats with. I eat with a spoon whose cleaning I personally oversaw, while you eat with spoons whose cleaning you did not oversee. The one who cleaned them may have cleaned them well, or he may not have cleaned them.” This is an answer