Bread

Rasulullah (Sallallahu alaihi wasallam) said: “Honour bread because Allah Ta’ala has encapsulated in it all the blessings of the heaven and the earth. Don’t place a dish on top of it. Allah afflicts with starvation a people who dishonours bread. Allah forgives the person who picks up the crumbs on the tablecloth (and eats it).”

Bread was the first food which Aadam (Alaihis salaam) ate on earth. The seeds of wheat were brought by Jibraeel who taught Aadam (Alaihis salaam) the way of farming and the way of baking bread.

Among the ni’maat (bounties) of Allah, food in general and bread in particular occupy a lofty pedestal. Those who dishonour food by wasting and dumping it (as is the practice among affluent people), will sooner or later be overtaken by poverty and hunger.

Even the crumbs on the tablecloth should not be allowed to go to waste. It is sunnah to clean the plate and the tablecloth.

(The Majlis Archives)