What is the sunnah of cutting nails?

Question

What is the sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in cutting nails of hand and foot toes?

Answer 1

All Praise to Allah Subhanahu wa Taala and blessings of Him be on Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him His family and companion

'A'isha reported: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) loved to start from the right-hand side in his every act i. e. in wearing shoes, in combing (his hair) and in performing ablution.(Muslim)

Sunnah method is to start from the right hand and Ali may Allah swt be pleased with him has narrated the method of cutting nails as to start with the Index finger of the Right hand then middle finger then ring finger and little finger then little finger of the left hand then ring finger then middle finger then index finger then thumb of the left hand then thumb of the right hand,wash the hands after clipping the nails.

There is no specific method mentioned for cutting nails of the feet but prescribed method is to cut in the same manner as doing khilaal of the feet in wudu means starting from the little finger of the right foot upto the thumb then thumb of the left foot moving to the little finger of the left foot.

Allah swt and His Messenger knows best.

Answer 2

Narrated `Aisha: The Prophet (ﷺ) used to like to start from the right side on wearing shoes, combing his hair and cleaning or washing himself and on doing anything else.

so it's better to start cutting nails of the right hand first then the left hand ..

It was narrated that Anas bin Malik said: "We were given a time limit with regard to trimming the mustache, shaving the pubic hairs, plucking the armpit hairs and clipping the nails. We were not to leave that for more than forty days."

so we should try not to let our nails more than 40 days without cutting them ..