Before You eat..

1 – Washing the hands before
eating. The hands should be
washed before eating, so that
they may be clean when a person
eats with them, and so that he
will not be harmed by any dirt
that may be on them.

2 – Part of the etiquette of
eating is to ask about the food if
you are a guest and you do not
know what it is (i.e., what type
of food it is), and you are not
sure about what has been
offered to you. The Messenger
(peace and blessings of Allaah be
upon him) used not to eat food
until he had been told about it or
told what is was called, so that
he would know what it was.
Al-Bukhaari narrated from
Khaalid ibn al-Waleed that he and
the Messenger of Allaah (peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon
him) entered upon Maymoonah,
who was his [Khaalid ’s] maternal
aunt and the maternal aunt of
Ibn ‘Abbaas, and found that she
had some roasted lizard that her
sister Hafeedah bint al-Haarith
had brought from Najd. She
offered the lizard to the
Messenger of Allaah (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him),
but he would rarely stretch forth
his hand to food until he had
been told what it was. The
Messenger of Allaah (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him)
stretched forth his hand, then
one of the women who were
present said, “Tell the Messenger
of Allaah (peace and blessings of
Allaah be upon him) that what
has been offered to him is
lizard. ” The Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be
upon him) withdrew his hand
from the lizard, and Khaalid ibn
al-Waleed asked, “Is lizard
haraam, O Messenger of Allaah?”
He said, “No, but it is not found
in the land of my people and I
feel that I would have no liking
for it. Khaalid said, Then I
chewed it and ate it, and the
Messenger of Allaah was looking
at me.
(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 5391;
Muslim, 1946)

3 – Hastening to eat when food
is brought by the host. Part of
honouring one's guest is to
hasten to offer him something,
and part of the guest ’s
honouring the host is to hasten
to accept his food and eat from
it. If the host sees the guest not
eating, he may think badly of
him. So the guest has to reassure
his hosts by hastening to eat his
food, because that will reassure
him.

4 – Mentioning the name of
Allaah before eating. It is
obligatory to mention the name
of Allaah before eating. What is
meant by that is saying
“ Bismillaah (in the name of
Allaah)” when starting to eat.
It was narrated from Umm
Kalthoom from ‘Aa’ishah (may
Allaah be pleased with her) that
the Messenger of Allaah (peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon
him) said: “When any one of you
eats, let him mention the name
of Allaah. If he forgets to
mention the name of Allaah at
the beginning, then let him say
‘ Bismillaahi awwalahu wa
aakhirahu (In the name of Allaah
at the beginning and at the
end). ’”
(Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 1858;
Abu Dawood, 3767; Ibn Maajah,
3264.)
And ‘Umar ibn Abi Salamah said: I
was a young boy in the care of
the Messenger of Allaah (peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon
him), and my hand used to
wander all over the platter (of
food). The Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be
upon him) said to me, “O young
boy, say Bismillaah, eat with your
right hand, and eat from what is
directly in front of you. ”
(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 3576;
Muslim, 2022).