Posted on 05/11/2007 10:18:42 AM PDT by Alouette
In Islam, pork was forbidden for human consumption more than 1400 years ago. The wisdom behind this Divine prohibition was only discovered in the 20th century by doctors and scientists.
Food and drink have direct effect on our health. That is why Allah (the one and only God) has prescribed regulations about our food and drink. Islam lays great emphasis on our physical as well as moral health, because both of these are equally important for a healthy society.
The abstention from eating pork is one of the steps taken by Islam to practise hygiene and to attain purity of soul. There is a saying in English that "a man becomes what he eats". According to physicians and medical experts, pork is a harmful diet. Consumption of swine-flesh creates lowliness in character and destroys moral and spiritual faculties in a man.
The Qur’an has prohibited the swine-flesh, hence the Muslims would not dare touch it. The Bible has also forbidden swine-flesh, but Christians disregarded this order and started consuming it.
The life of a man is a compound of body and soul. Anything, which is harmful for the body, hurts the soul as well.
Consumption of swine-flesh reduces the feeling of shame and as such the standard of modesty. Those nations, which consume pork habitually, have a low standard of morality with the result that virginity, chastity and bashfulness are becoming a thing of the past.
The formula of "skin to skin is no sin" is taking its toll but there is hardly any feeling of shame or remorse over the end-result. Since the Western nations have become addicted to wine and pork, sexual freedom with all its attendant evils has got ingrained in their culture.
Medical discoveries of pork’s harm
Reliable medical doctors and social scientists are able to realise how those food and drinks forbidden by Islam are harmful and destructive to the human spirit and morality as well as to the physique and moral fibre of man and to verify the benefits of Islamic legislations on the subjects.
Dr. E. Kazim. M.D, in his article "Medical aspects of forbidden foods in Islam" (July 1981 issue of Muslim Journal) has described diseases carried or caused by the flesh of swine.
He writes: "The pig is a scavenger. It is an omnivorous animal. It eats everything. There are many diseases carried from swine to man, particularly parasite infestations. Lately extensive research has been focused on senility-old age is characterised by hardening of inner lining of the blood vessels of the heart, brain etc. a process called atheroselerosis. When a clot forms, it results in coronary thrombosis or a heart attack, cerebral thrombosis or stroke.
Different dietary factors are responsible for atheroselerosis. Gross atheroma may be produced in rabbit by feeding it with cholesterol, but when you add lard (derived from hog fat) to the cholesterol, the incidence of atheroma is increased and thus you would produce coronary thrombosis, and myocardial infraction."
Besides, lard contains 2800 units of vitamin D per 100 grams and no vitamin A at all. Lately vitamin D has been held responsible for atheroma, by causing increased absorption of calcium in the blood vessels. In human beings, serum cholesterol is not dependent on the intake of cholesterol in the diet, but depends upon the proportion of animal fats in the diet, which elevates the beta-lipo protein level in the blood. Animal fats contain saturated fatty acids and these saturated fatty acids have been found to be as one of the causes of atheroma in man. Medium fat bacon contains 25% proteins and 55% fat.
According to medical research, the fat content in pork is more than any other meat (beef, mutton etc.) and it takes longer to digest. Dr. M Jaffer in an article in the Islamic Review (London) of January 1997 issue has listed 16 kinds of harmful germs, which have been discovered in pork in modern researches and the diseases, which could be caused by them. The number of patients suffering from tapeworm disease is the highest in the world among pork eating nations. Other diseases attributed to pigs are caused by tri-chinelia spirates and intestinal worms occupy first place among such nations too.
Dr. Glen Shepherd wrote the following on the dangers of eating pork in Washington Post (31 May 1952): "One in six people in USA and Canada have germs in their muscles - trichinosis 8 from eating pork infected with trichina worms. Many people who are infected show no symptoms. Most of those, who do have, recover slowly. Some die; some are reduced to permanent invalids. All were careless pork caters."
He continued: "No one is immune from the disease and there is no cure. Neither antibiotics nor drugs or vaccines affect these tiny deadly worms. Preventing infection is the real answer."
After reading the statement of Dr. Shepherd, one can realise that there is no real guarantee of safety when eating pork that one would not be affected by trichina worm. That is why modern doctors advise three prohibitions during illness: no liquor, no pork and no smoking.
Wisdom of Islam
Muslims follow the divine law which is much higher than the medical advice. The Glorious Qur’an says: "So eat of the lawful and good food which Allah has provided for you, and thank the bounty of your Lord if it is Him you serve. He has forbidden for you only carrion and blood and swine-flesh and that which has been immolated in the name of any other than Allah; but he who is driven thereto, neither craving nor transgressing, Lo! then Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." (16:114-115)
The above is the order from the Creator of the universe and the Supreme Law-Giver. All Muslims are under the obligation to obey it. This is a plain and straightforward answer to those, who usually ask why Muslims abstain from eating pork.
The prohibition is based on the aim of the purification of one’s nature, because food, when consumed, does not merely enter the stomach and intestines and become excreta. It is absorbed and metabolised into the system and circulated to all parts of the human body, including the brain, and this in no small way affects man’s nature. Take a look at the nature of the pig for example. The pig is naturally lazy and indulgent in sex, it is dirty, greedy and gluttonous. It dislikes sunlight and lacks the spirit and will to "fight". It eats almost anything, be it human excreta or anything foul and unwholesome. Amongst all animal flesh, pork is the favoured cradle of harmful germs. Pork also serves as a carrier of diseases to mankind. It is for this reason that its flesh is not suitable for consumption.
Some people have argued that the "modern pig" reared in farms is given only clean foods, therefore, its flesh should be consumable. The answer is that you may feed the pig on clean, wholesome food, but you cannot change its nature. It is still a pig and will always stay so. A pig is not a plant and you cannot change it by bud-grafting!
I have no trouble saying that I have always found ALL food restrictions imposed on believers by ANY religion to be absurd. The ONLY restriction should be against McDonald’s, and KFC, which would be commonsensical, but of course , anti-libertarian. Let’s get real, for Chrissake, ( so to speak)/
I simply can’t get into anything so “symbolic”-—it makes me feel like a fool who is afraid to think for himself.
For the life of me, I still can’t figure out what it is that is so attractive to billions of people who are willing to be seduced by a concept,and have their behavior on this level (eating)defined by the strictures of this kind of thing .It seems to exist in some form or another within ALL religions
The ritual laws to include the dietary laws.
Wrong.. Islam forbids pork because Islam forbids cannibalism..
Hmmmm... I think the FAA should mandate pigskin leather upholstery on all airline seats ...
So people won’t touch pork, but will gladly take a rusty old knife, a video camera, wrap some towels around their heads, start singing religious ditties, and slice a person’s head off.
1. That both Jews and gentiles need to repent of their sins.
2. To accept gentiles into the Christian Church.
3. To not impose Jewish ritual laws, including dietary laws on the gentile.
Yep, a lot of hypocracy there.
So people won’t touch pork, but will gladly take a rusty old knife, a video camera, wrap some towels around their heads, start singing religious ditties, and slice a person’s head off.
Because......
It's in the koran......
The last pigs we raised (3) went everywhere and due to the heavy rains mixed it into a fine ooze in the outside pen. They also bit me more than once, but they made up for it when we ate the most delicious ham, bacon, chops and baby back ribs to die for.
>>>The Bible has also forbidden swine-flesh, but Christians disregarded this order and started consuming it. <<<
Pork was forbidden in the Old Testament. But Jesus said, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man . . . whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” — Matthew 15:11,17-19
Thats funny, Jesus said this about the Law.
Matt 5:17,18 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
The Law is valid now.
G-d wants us to restrain our behavior so we will be thinking of Him in all that we do. That sounds like a reasonable thing to do for the Creator of the universe. I gladly don't eat Pork. It is not a burden when you love G-d.
Carolyn
Purity of soul means not hating Jews and Christians. Eating or not eating a particular animal is totally unrelated to religion.
you'll no doubt surrender your ministry and seminary degree, having been now been "assured" (sarcasm)
The Law is the ten commandments, this is God's law, the rest is mans law and not what Jesus was refering to. In fact he broke much of it, as was pointed out during his trail. He pointed out that he kept Gods Law.
Because they would be giving up something they would have never eaten in those times. Dessert people are not going to raise an animal which needs water to keep cool, and wallow in it and muddy up their drinking water. At that time 99% of those people had never seen a pig.
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