Chapter: The recommendation to begin with the right side in every action deemed honorable—such as wuduʾ (ritual ablution), ghusl (full purificatory bath), tayammum (dry ablution), putting on one’s garment, sandals, leather socks, or trousers, entering the mosque, using the siwak, applying kohl, clipping the fingernails, trimming the moustache, plucking the armpit hair, shaving the head, pronouncing the salām that ends the prayer, eating, drinking, shaking hands, touching the Black Stone, leaving the lavatory, taking or handing over something, and everything else of similar import.

Conversely, it is recommended to start with the left side in whatever is its opposite—such as blowing the nose, spitting to the left, entering the lavatory, leaving the mosque, removing one’s leather socks, sandals, trousers, or garment, performing istinjāʾ (cleansing after relief), and all other repugnant or filthy actions.

Allah the Exalted says: “As for the one who is given his record in his right hand, he will say, ‘Here—read my record!’” (Q 69:19). And He says: “So the people of the right—how fortunate are the people of the right! And the people of the left—how miserable are the people of the left!” (Q 56:8–9).

[Commentary]
The author—may Allah have mercy on him—states under the heading, “Chapter on the recommendation to give precedence to the right in every act of honor,” while the opposite holds true for acts associated with humiliation, for which one begins with the left hand. He then cites numerous examples such as