Starting to serve food from the right side

Question

At invitations, hospitality gatherings (diyafa) and the like, where people commonly eat and feed others, from which side should the eating be started: from one’s own right side or from the right side of those eating?

Answer

The one serving should distribute starting from his own right side; or, if there is some eminent person in the gathering, he should begin with him and distribute to his right (الأيمن فالأيمن — “the right, then the right”). The Prophet ﷺ distributed from his own right side, as is in the narration of the Sihah (the authentic hadith collections).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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