Text copied Link copied

Al-Fatawa – home

﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

Scholar
Search mode

The ruling on a guest saying to his host: “Your left is right,” if the host serves him food with his left hand

Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. Among some tribes, when a guest serves something to his host with his left hand, the host says to him, “Left! What are you doing?” The guest replies, “Your left is right.” What is the ruling on this saying?

Answer:
This is likening Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to creation. “Your left is right”—no. The left of a created being is his left. It is disliked to eat with the left hand, and to take and give with the left hand, except for one whose right hand is defective and he cannot use it; in that case, he uses his left hand.
As for one whose right hand is sound, he does not replace it with his left. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) saw a man eating with his left hand, so he said to him, “Eat with your right hand.” The man said, “I cannot.” Nothing prevented him but arrogance. So the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “You cannot.” He invoked a curse upon him (peace and blessings be upon him)
So he did not raise his hand to his mouth afterفما رفع يده الى فيه بعد
Sahih Ibn Hibban 62:380
for that.
Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) froze it as a punishment for him. So taking, giving, eating, greeting, and receiving are done with the right hand, and the left hand is for removing impurities and for purification. Yes.
Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [731 -1024] حكم قول الضيف لمضيفه: (شمالك يمين) إن قدم له الطعام بالشمال - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

Flag this fatwa