Some also said: if one drinks during the meal, he feels as though his stomach were a waterskin sloshing about. But where there is an established habit, habits acquire a fixed nature. Many people are not affected by drinking during the meal or immediately afterward, because they are accustomed to it.

Moreover, if the food is hot and the water cold, there is another source of harm: the cold comes upon the hot. It is well known that heat causes the blood vessels and skin to expand; then, when the cold comes, they contract rapidly, and this poses a danger.

His statement, “When he drinks, he should pass it to the person on his right,” is in imitation of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him (1). This applies when there is a single vessel; but if each person has his own vessel, then the matter is clear.

But if the one serving drinks enters, with whom should he begin? Should he begin with the one immediately to his right as he enters, or with the one in front of him?

We say: he should begin with the eldest, as the sunnah indicates. He should not begin with the person to his right by the door. From this we know that what some people do—when they enter, shaking hands with everyone in the gathering, from the first person on the right to the last on the left—is not from the sunnah, not in terms of passing by