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fa-kulū mimmā razaqakumu llāhu ḥalālan ṭayyiban wa-shkurū niʿmata llāhi ʾin kuntum ʾiyyāhu taʿbudūna
So eat out of what Allah has provided you as lawful and good, and give thanks for Allah’s blessing, if it is Him that you worship.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah An-Nahl – Verse 114
114. “Therefore, eat out of what Allah has provided for you, lawful and good, and give you thanks for Allah’s bounty if (only) Him do you worship.”
Islam only allows one to eat what is both ‘clean’ and ‘allowed by the religion’. Those things such as wine and pork are forbidden in Islam, for they are inherently nasty and unclean, as well as those eating stuffs which are bought with usurped money even if they are ‘clean’ by themselves. They are bought in exchange for the money which does not belong to the person himself, thus they are unlawful and forbidden. Now that being ingratitude towards the divine favours and their rejection of the prophets will lead to the Divine outrage and punishment, therefore, instead of ungratefulness and infidelity, we should always necessarily benefit from the allowed favors and consume them in the ‘allowed way’, remaining thankful to Him if we truly worship Him.
The noble verse says:
“Therefore, eat out of what Allah has provided for you, lawful and good, and give you thanks for Allah’s bounty if (only) Him do you worship.”
This verse, as well as the previous one, probably refers to a group of the Children of Israel who used to live in a developed region and were caught in the entanglement of famine and insecurity because of their ingratitude for the blessings. The proof for this claim is provided by a ‘tradition’ which has been quoted from Imam Sadiq (as) who declared:
“A group of the Children of Israel used to enjoy such an affluent life that they used to build small statues out of the food-stuffs and, at times, they used to clean their bodies with them.
Consequently, they were led to the point where they were compelled to eat out of those spoiled unclean food-stuffs, which is the case that Allah referred to in the Qur’an, saying:
“And Allah sets forth a parable: a township that was secure, at rest…”” 1
This parable serves as a warning to all those individuals and nations which are encompassed fully by the Divine blessings so that they may abstain from any kinds of wasteful prodigality, extravagance, and spoiling of the blessings which would lead to certain heavy compensation from their part. This example also serves as a warning to those who throw away half of their additional meal to the dustbins, while at the same time, it serves as a warning to those who hoard the food-stuffs in their houses storage area for their personal consumption and for selling them at a dearer price whereas, they become spoiled and become out of use.
Nevertheless, despite knowing this, they are not ready to make them available to others at a cheaper rate. Certainly, all of such acts are punishable by the Divine Will, the least punishment of which is withholding of such blessings by Allah. And a comprehensive religion has also got comprehensive and all-encompassing rules and regulations. It has got a set of rules for both the ‘apparent cleanliness’ of things which are pre-requisites for their consumption, as well as their inherent and ‘legal cleanliness’.
Footnotes