which portion of your food the blessing lies.” Reported by Muslim.

9/610 – Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said: “If I were invited to a meal consisting only of a shank or a foreleg, I would answer the invitation; and if a foreleg or a shank were presented to me as a gift, I would accept it.” Reported by al-Bukhari.

10/611 – Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: The Messenger of Allah’s she-camel al-ʿAdbāʾ was never overtaken—or was hardly ever overtaken—until a bedouin came on his own camel and outran her. That distressed the Muslims, and when the Prophet ﷺ noticed it he said, “It is Allah’s due that nothing in this world rises high except that He brings it down.” Reported by al-Bukhari.

[Commentary]

Imam al-Nawawi—may Allah have mercy on him—cited these hadiths in his Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn under the chapter on humility. Among them is the narration of Anas ibn Mālik, may Allah be pleased with him, in which the Prophet ﷺ, once he had finished eating, would lick his three fingers. He would pass his tongue over them so that any food still clinging to them became part of what he had already eaten. Some physicians have observed a practical benefit in this practice: during eating, the fingertips secrete a substance that aids digestion.

Accordingly, licking the fingers after a meal brings two benefits:

1. A religious benefit: it is an act of following the Prophet ﷺ.
2. A health benefit: the secretion produced after eating helps the body digest the food.