Fatwa ID: 06543

 

Answered by: Alimah Zainab Nakhuda

 

Question:

 

Doing tasbeeh with one’s left hand?

 

 

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

 

Answer:

 

Doing good actions with the right hand is definitely something very virtuous proven through the Sunnah; we know that the Prophet SAW used to like starting things from the right, and doing things with the right hand. We can see this in the following Ahadith:

 

حَدَّثَنَا حَفْصُ بْنُ عُمَرَ، قَالَ حَدَّثَنَا شُعْبَةُ، قَالَ أَخْبَرَنِي أَشْعَثُ بْنُ سُلَيْمٍ، قَالَ سَمِعْتُ أَبِي، عَنْ مَسْرُوقٍ، عَنْ عَائِشَةَ، قَالَتْ كَانَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم يُعْجِبُهُ التَّيَمُّنُ فِي تَنَعُّلِهِ وَتَرَجُّلِهِ وَطُهُورِهِ وَفِي شَأْنِهِ كُلِّهِ‏.‏

 

Narrated `Aisha: The Prophet (ﷺ) used to like to start from the right side by wearing shoes, combing his hair and cleaning or washing and doing anything else.

Sahih al-Bukhari 168

 

 

أَخْبَرَنَا مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ مَعْمَرٍ، قَالَ حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو عَاصِمٍ، عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ بِشْرٍ، عَنْ أَشْعَثَ بْنِ أَبِي الشَّعْثَاءِ، عَنِ الأَسْوَدِ بْنِ يَزِيدَ، عَنْ عَائِشَةَ، قَالَتْ كَانَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يُحِبُّ التَّيَامُنَ يَأْخُذُ بِيَمِينِهِ وَيُعْطِي بِيَمِينِهِ وَيُحِبُّ التَّيَمُّنَ فِي جَمِيعِ أُمُورِهِ ‏.‏

 

It was narrated that ‘Aishah said: “The Messenger of Allah [SAW] used to like to start in the right. He would accept with his right hand and give with his right hand, and he liked to start on the right in all his affairs.”

Sunan an-Nasa’i 5059

 

From these Ahadith, it is clear that the Prophet SAW liked to use His blessed right hand for good things, and that he liked to start with the right side as well. However, none of these Ahaadith prohibits the use of the left hand.

 

Furthermore, the Prophet SAW did not specify any hand in the Hadith where He taught us to count our Azhkaar on our fingers; rather, he just mentioned the fingers in general:

 

وَعَنْ يُسَيْرَةَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَا وَكَانَتْ مِنَ الْمُهَاجِرَاتِ قَالَتْ: قَالَ لَنَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ: «عَلَيْكُنَّ بِالتَّسْبِيحِ وَالتَّهْلِيلِ وَالتَّقْدِيسِ واعقِدْنَ بالأناملِ فإِنهنَّ مسؤولات مُسْتَنْطَقَاتٌ وَلَا تَغْفُلْنَ فَتَنْسَيْنَ الرَّحْمَةَ» . رَوَاهُ التِّرْمِذِيُّ وَأَبُو دَاوُد

 

Yusaira, who was one of the women emigrants, told of God’s messenger saying to them, “Apply yourselves to glorifying God, saying there is no god but He, and declaring His holiness; and count them on your fingers, for they [i.e. the fingers] will be questioned and asked to speak; and do not be negligent and so be deprived of mercy.”

Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud transmitted it.

Mishkat al-Masabih 2316

 

In this Hadith, the command of counting on the fingers is general; it is not specific to the fingers of the right hand only. Furthermore, in the commentary of this Hadith, Allamah Teebee RA mentions that the Prophet SAW encouraged these women to count their Azhkaar on their fingers so that this pious action could erase any sins which may have been committed with those fingers/hands. From this, we can deduce that the person should count on both hands, left and right, because our left hands are not safe from sins, and we want our left hand’s sins to be erased just as much as we’d like our right hand’s sins to be erased.

 

Hence, from the above, we can come to the conclusion that it is permissible to do Tasbeeh on the left hand as well. In order to do Aml (act upon) both types of Ahadith, one should start off with doing Zhikr on the right hand, and then continue onto his left hand; this way, they would be acting on the Sunnah of giving preference to the right hand and starting with the right side.

 

At most, we might say that it is preferable to count Zhikr on the right hand only, but definitely not necessary. In this case, then, the person should use their left hand to count Zhikr only when they are using the right hand for another task that should/can only be done with the right hand, like writing, eating, etc.

 

 

 

Only Allah knows best.

 Written by Alimah Zainab Nakhuda

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham

 

 

 

 

Reference:

 

^[1] Mirqaat Al-Mafaateeh, page 1605, volume 4, Maktabah Shamelah

قَالَ الطِّيبِيُّ: حَرَّضَهُنَّ – صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ – عَلَى أَنْ يُحْصِينَ تِلْكَ الْكَلِمَاتِ بِأَنَامِلِهِنَّ لِيَحُطَّ عَنْهَا بِذَلِكَ مَا اجْتَرَحَتْهُ مِنَ الذُّنُوبِ، وَيَدُلُّ عَلَى أَنَّهُنَّ كُنَّ يَعْرِفْنَ عَقْدَ الْحِسَابِ.