Is eating with the left hand haram?

The hadith both sides rely on

The Prophet ﷺ forbade eating and drinking with the left hand and gave a reason for the prohibition:

"None of you should eat with his left hand or drink with his left hand, for the devil eats with his left hand and drinks with his left hand."— Sahih Muslim 2020

Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen points out that the Prophet ﷺ tied the prohibition to a specific cause — imitating the devil — and that Allah warns against following the devil's footsteps:

"O you who have believed, do not follow the footsteps of Satan. And whoever follows the footsteps of Satan — indeed, he enjoins immorality and wrongdoing."— Qur'an 24:21

On this reasoning, the act is not a trivial matter of etiquette. Ibn Uthaymeen says the devil rejoices when you eat with your left hand, because you have followed him and opposed the Messenger ﷺ — and he urges students of knowledge to remind people of this.

Why some scholars say haram

Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen's argument is that the prohibition is explicit, that the Prophet ﷺ gave a reason for it, and that whatever is attributed to the devil's behaviour is forbidden. He also invokes the principle that the forbidden is not permitted except out of necessity (darurah). The Permanent Committee reached the same conclusion in narrower terms: eating with the left hand is not permissible when you are able to eat with the right.

Why others say merely disliked

Al-Nawawi, in his commentary on Sahih Muslim, read the same hadith as establishing the recommendation of eating with the right and the dislike of eating with the left — not a prohibition. Al-Shawkani, in Nayl al-Awtar, countered that a prohibition in its literal sense means forbidding, and only becomes mere dislike by some evidence turning it aside. Ibn Hajar records that Ibn al-Arabi explicitly held a person who eats with his left hand to be sinning, arguing that anything attributed to the devil is forbidden. IslamWeb reports that the majority of scholars hold the dislike position, while noting that some held it forbidden.

When the left hand is allowed

Every position above carves out the same exception, and it is worth being precise about what counts:

• A genuine excuse removes the ruling entirely: Ibn Uthaymeen lists a paralysed, broken or burned right hand — anything that makes eating or drinking with the right genuinely impossible. Al-Nawawi adds illness or injury to the same list.
• Difficulty, not inconvenience, is the standard: Ibn Uthaymeen is explicit that fear of dirtying a cup is not an excuse. He notes that cups today are often paper, that a glass can be held from the bottom between thumb and forefinger, and that if it does get soiled it can simply be washed.
• Using the left hand as a helper is fine: Shaykh Ibn Baz permits using the left hand to assist — cutting meat, for instance — while the right hand does the eating, following the Prophet's ﷺ practice.
• Holding bread with the left hand is permitted: the Permanent Committee allows holding or cutting bread with the left; what is not allowed is eating with it when you can use the right.
• Other left-hand actions are a different matter: writing, and taking or giving, are not covered by the prohibition on eating. Ibn Uthaymeen notes that taking and giving with the left is against the sunnah but does not place it in the same category as eating.

If you were raised left-handed

IslamWeb addresses the case of someone who grew up eating and writing with the left hand. The answer is that a Muslim should not eat or drink with the left when able to use the right, and that on the view of prohibition, persisting in it while able to use the right is a sin. Using the left hand for ordinary tasks such as writing carries no blame.

What to do in practice

The safest course is to eat and drink with your right hand, and to train yourself to hold the cup or glass in a way that keeps the right hand usable. If your right hand is injured or impaired, use the left without hesitation — the scholars agree the concession applies. If you have been eating with your left out of habit rather than necessity, the disagreement among scholars does not make the act neutral; it means some scholars see sin in it and others do not, and the one who leaves it has nothing to answer for.

Key takeaways

• Eating with the left hand without a valid excuse is haram to Ibn Uthaymeen and the Permanent Committee, and disliked to al-Nawawi and the majority position reported by IslamWeb.
• The disagreement is over the force of the prohibition, not over whether the right hand is the sunnah — all sides agree the right is preferred.
• A genuine inability to use the right hand — paralysis, fracture, burn, illness — removes the blame entirely.
• Fear of soiling a cup or plate is not a valid excuse; the scholars address this directly and reject it.
• Using the left hand to assist with cutting or holding food is permitted; the prohibition concerns eating and drinking themselves.

Further reading

• Al-Nawawi, Sharh Sahih Muslim
• Al-Shawkani, Nayl al-Awtar
• Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari

And Allah knows best.