obscenity and wrongdoing.” ⦗al-Nur: 21⦘. Therefore, the stronger opinion is that eating with the right hand is obligatory, as is drinking with the right hand, and that eating or drinking with the left hand is forbidden. Moreover, eating and drinking with the left is not only the practice of Satan; it is also the practice of the unbelievers, for they eat and drink with their left hands.

Some people, while eating, will pick up the cup with their left hand to drink, claiming, “I am afraid the cup will become soiled if I drink with my right.” We say: let it become soiled, for if it does, it is only soiled with food, not with urine or filth. It is merely food, and it can be washed off.

You can even hold the cup from the bottom between your thumb and index finger, forming a ring, and only a small amount of food will touch it. So no one has an excuse for drinking with the left hand on this pretext, because the matter is one of prohibition, and what is forbidden is allowed only in cases of necessity—such as when the hand is paralyzed and cannot be raised to the mouth, or broken so that it cannot be lifted, or wounded so that one cannot eat or drink with it.

In short, if there is a genuine necessity, using the left hand is permissible; otherwise, it is not lawful for a Muslim to eat or drink with the left hand.

The third etiquette is found in his words, “and eat from what is in front of you,” meaning: do not reach across to someone else’s side of the dish; rather, eat from what lies directly before you. Encroaching on another person’s side is ill-mannered, so eat from what is in front of you.