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Beginning with the Right when Entertaining

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By Shaykh Abdul Fattah Abu Ghuddah Now some people wrongfully allege, without properly grasping the texts nor giving them their due, that the Sunnah is to begin with whomever is to the immediate right of the host based on the hadiths that mention the  virtue of beginning on the right .  Yet that only pertains to when those present are peers with respect to their traits, virtues, or age. In that case the host begins with whomever is to his right. Otherwise, if one of the guests is distinguished from the others, by age for example, then one would begin with him by virtue of that noble trait. Imam Ibn Rushd (i.e. Muhammad bin Ahmad who died in 520 Hijri "the grandfather" of the famous philosopher, Allah have mercy on him) in his rich and magnificent work “ Al-Bayan wa al-Tahsil ” says: "When the guests are the same or similar in stature then beginning from the right is what would be most fitting by way of good character. That is because doing so entails not ...