Should everyone at the meal eat from one flatbread or separately, and may a flatbread be broken into four pieces?

Question

Should each person put a separate flatbread for himself on the dining cloth and eat, or should everyone eat by breaking pieces from one flatbread? And what about breaking one flatbread into four parts?

Answer

Every way is fine. In eating separate flatbreads, the measure of one’s own food is preserved and there is neither excess nor deficiency; in shared eating the aspect of unity and harmony predominates. The custom of breaking it into four pieces exists in those regions where the Shi‘a are strong, and it signifies the four Caliphs: that we accept all four and do not deny two or…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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