purpose. Just as it is impermissible to eat or drink from them, it is likewise impermissible—according to this view—to use them as a receptacle for medicine, or as a container for silver dirhams, gold dinars, or anything similar, because the Prophet ﷺ forbade eating and drinking from such vessels, and every other use is deemed analogous to that.

Other scholars, however, have allowed their use in matters other than eating and drinking. They argue that we restrict prohibition to what the explicit text mentions, while everything else remains lawful, for the default ruling is permissibility.

For this reason Umm Salamah, may Allah be pleased with her—who herself transmitted the hadith that prohibits eating and drinking from silverware—possessed a jiljil of silver, a small bell-shaped container, in which she kept a few strands of the Prophet’s hair ﷺ. People would seek healing through them: whenever someone fell ill, they would come to her, she would pour water into the jiljil, agitate it with the hair, and the patient would drink the water and, by Allah’s permission, recover. Thus she, may Allah be pleased with her, used silver for a purpose other than eating and drinking.

In my estimation this latter position is closer to the truth: employing gold and silver for purposes other than eating and drinking is permissible, though cautious piety would be to leave it, in deference to the majority view. Allah is the Granter of success.