Advice on Food Food is a daily choice, and people ask what guidelines there are on this topic in the Quran. Almost the same text appears at four places, in 2:172 17; 5:3 4; 6:146, and 16:114 115, with recommendations and prohibitions on eating. Ayas114 and 115 from Sura 16 are given below as representative of this message. So eat what God has provided you, lawful and wholesome, and be grateful for the favors of God if it is God that you serve. God has forbidden to you only what has died of itself, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and anything offered up to other than God. But if anyone is compelled by necessity, without wanting to or being excessive, then God is very forgiving, very merciful. In addition, there is a warning against over-eating in 20:81: excess, lest My anger descend on you. And whoever My anger settles upon has already fallen Most of the food practice in the Muslim culture has been in observing the prohibitions. But it is important to pay attention to other information in these ayas. To gain this perspective, we should note that being in good health is a very high priority in Islamic sharia. This originates from the extensive discussion of health, its value, and its preservation in the teachings of Prophet Muhammad. Having healthy habits was a part of the Prophet s religious discipline. The following is a quotation from The Life of Muhammad, by Husein Haykal (1983), page 493: People knew that the Prophet never suffered from any serious ailment. Nothing had adversely affected his health 1
throughout this period except a brief lack of appetite in the 6th year (after migration) and a little discomfort following his eating a bite of poisoned lamb in the 7th year. Furthermore, the rhythm of his life and the logic of his teachings always protected him against disease. He always ate little and satisfied himself with the barest and simplest necessities. His clothes and his house were always perfectly clean. The ritual of prayer and daily exercise which Muhammad observed as well as his sense of economy in the pursuit of pleasure, his refrain from indulgences of all kinds, and his general lack of concern for things of this world which kept him at a distance from them, but in communion with cosmic life and the secrets of existence all these aspects of character protected him against disease and gave him good health. In case we think that this was because he had good genes and inherited good health, you may recall that both his parents died in their twenties. The fact is that Prophet Muhammad chose to have healthy habits. His understanding of religion and its practice included health as an important component. Those who learned about Islam from him also became healthy people. Please note that every aya in the Quran related to eating begins with the recommendation that we eat what is wholesome. The word tayyib written here as wholesome can also be translated as pure, or nourishing, or natural. This is, therefore, the most important teaching about food. Eat what is wholesome and pure. It has been correctly said that our bodies are made up of what we eat, and, therefore, we owe it to ourselves to always eat wholesome and pure foods with high nutrition value. In the modern era, we have the benefit of knowing a great deal more about food products and their contents. People for whom health is a priority are conscious of this information. By the same token, we should avoid foods mixed with pesticides, artificial ingredients, and colors, and foods which have been subjected to industrial processing that depletes nutritional content. 2
Let us consider the prohibitions: God has forbidden to you only the flesh of dead animals, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and anything offered up to other than God. We can assume that these exclusions are to prevent damage to health. It is interesting to note what is known about this in modern data. Flesh of dead animals: As soon as an animal dies, bacteria from its colon quickly invade the whole body, and the process of decay begins. An animal that has been dead for sometime is likely to be heavily infected, and therefore, a health risk. Blood: Animal and human blood contain uric acid, which is one of the body s waste products and is a toxic substance. In normal body function, it is removed from the body through the kidneys in the form of urine. The traditional Muslim (and Jewish) method of killing an animal for food makes sure that blood is drained out. Accumulation of uric acid in the human body is related to gout, bladder stones, and also kidney disease. People with leukemia have an excessive concentration of uric acid. Pork: Trichinosis is caused by eating undercooked meat infected with the larvae of a worm called Trichinella found commonly in wild meat-eating animals, but also in domesticated pigs. In days before refrigeration, people who consumed pork, especially if not thoroughly cooked, were vulnerable to this disease. We can assume that the susceptibility to this illness was high in the desert climate, where the heat causes rapid multiplication of bacteria. The symptoms of trichinosis infection are nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain. If the infection is severe, patients experience difficulty coordinating movements and have heart and breathing problems. In those cases, death can occur. 3
Note that the prohibitions are on certain types of meats. There are no prohibitions on plant food. It is well known that fruits and vegetables are the basis of any healthy diet. Because of the desert climate, Prophet Muhammad and his contemporaries had only very limited access to fruits and vegetables. Narratives in the Hadith show that the Prophet was aware that a meat-based diet is harmful for health. If we pay attention to Prophet Muhammad s sayings and his personal habits, by far, the greatest emphasis is on avoiding overeating, as is also seen in Aya 20:81: excess, lest My anger descend on you. And whoever My anger settles upon has already fallen This is illustrated by the narrative that the King of Ethiopia sent three physicians to Medina as a goodwill gesture to the Prophet. They stayed with the Prophet s community for three months but did not have an occasion to treat anyone. When preparing to depart, they expressed surprise at the absence of disease in the Muslim community. The Prophet said to them: We are a people who do not eat when we are not hungry, and when we eat we do not fill ourselves. With the abundance of medical data we now have, it is common knowledge that eating more than what the body needs leads to obesity, which is correlated with a large number of diseases: high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, several types of cancer, sleep apnea, abdominal hernias, varicose veins, gout, and other diseases. excess, lest My anger descend on you. 4
Note that God s anger is the same as the pain we suffer because of the choices we make. Health is the chief underpinning of well-being. It is a measure of the energy we have to do what we want to do. Being healthy, we can help others. In serious conditions of poor health, we become dependent on others. Illness is often accompanied by pain, and prolonged illness results in emotional suffering for the patient and the family. We are fortunate to be alive in times when information, foods, vitamins, and exercise equipment are readily available for us to keep in good health. Let us make being healthy a high priority. This is Chapter 40 in The Quran and The Life of Excellence by Sultan Abdulhameed 5