Diet, Detox, Fast
By © Fatima Martin, London, March 2003
Every time I am at the newsagent's I have a quick look through the shelves whether there are any new magazines on the market. Against all odds I am still hoping to find a magazine that might not be completely opposed to all I believe in. Every time I am disappointed. However, simply reading the headlines of the articles on the front covers of the myriads of magazines has given me an insight into what seem to be the priorities of may women, and a growing number of men, in this society: being slim and sexually attractive and adventurous. For years I thanked Allah that I was spared worrying how I looked in a bikini on the beach or in that revealing dress at the Christmas party. Dieting was vanity, as far as I was concerned.
Detoxing, which has replaced dieting in the 21st Century, may sound different, but its main purpose is still to lose weight and look good. "Surely Allah won't judge us by our looks", was my answer to all those initiatives trying to sell me diets and diet food.
I was happy enough in my slightly overweight body until my mother died suddenly in her sixties from a heart attack. She had suffered from diabetes for years, brought on by obesity and lack of exercise. My mother was not a Muslim and for a while I believed that had she surrendered to Allah and prayed and fasted she would not have suffered as she did.
I don't know why it took my mother's death to open my eyes and look at the Muslim Ummah around me with a different eye. I started to notice that chairs were being put out during the Jumu'ah prayer for women who could no longer make sajda, most of them obese. I talked to people about my mother and found out that diabetes is very common amongst the Asian Muslim community.
When invited during Ramadan to break fast I began to resent the mountains of food I had to eat, which left everybody too tired to pray or recite Qur'an. Wherever I went, whether it was an 'Aqiqa or an 'Eid party or a dhikr, I was aware how much more importance was put on the food for the body than on the spiritual food. Many times I left a gathering of Muslims spiritually empty but physically full to the brim. I may have been unfair in my judgement, even ungrateful, and I ask Allah to forgive me, but these feelings of dissatisfaction spurred me on to search in the Qur'an and the Hadith collections for guidance on eating. I knew from experience that a believer is a mirror for a believer. The flaws I had discovered in my brothers and sisters were of course mine too, otherwise I would not have noticed, and Allah was telling me that my time had come to change.
Finding out what Allah and the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) had to say about eating was an eye-opener. Our lifestyle in the West seems to go against any guidance we were given. The following hadiths make it very clear that prayer and fasting in Ramadan is not enough.
"Make war on your souls with hunger and with thirst, for the reward which this brings is that of participation in the jihad. There is no action more beloved in the sight of Allah than to hunger and to thirst."
"Meditation is half of worship, while eating frugally is a lot of it."
"The most exalted amongst you in God's sight on the Day of Judgement shall be those who hungered and meditated the longest for His sake, while the most loathsome amongst you in His sight on that Day will be those who slept, ate and drank abundantly."
When I read these words I have no illusion into which category I am falling. Being born into a wealthy society where food is abundant is not a blessing but a test. Poverty is a test too, and maybe I only imagine that it is easier for the poor to accept their poverty and stay generous than it is for the rich to abstain from food and drink for Allah's sake, and not for vanity's sake. How could we ever earn the blessings of the brother, and his wife, who are mentioned in the following hadith?
"Someone came to Allah's Messenger (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) and said, 'I am hard-pressed by hunger'. He sent (a message) to one of his wives (to procure food for him), but she said: 'By Him who has sent you with the Truth, I have nothing (to serve him) but water'. He (the Holy Prophet) then sent the (same) message to another, and she gave the same reply, until all of them gave the same reply: 'By Him who has sent you with the Truth, I have nothing but water'. Thereupon he (the Holy Prophet) said: 'Allah will show mercy to him who entertains this guest tonight'. A person from the Ansar stood up and said: 'Messenger of Allah, I (am ready to entertain)'. He took him to his house and said to his wife: 'Do you have anything (to serve the guest)?' She said: 'No, barely enough for our children'. He said: 'Distract their attention with something, and when the guest enters extinguish the lamp and give him the impression that we are eating.' So they sat down, and the guest had his meal. When it was morning he went to Allah's Apostle (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) who said: 'Allah was well pleased with what you both did for your guest this night'."
The two most mentioned hadiths in the context of eating and drinking are the following:
"A descendant of Adam can fill no container worse than his own belly. A few mouthfuls should suffice to keep his back straight; if he cannot keep to this, then let him fill one third with his food, one third with his drink, and keep the other for his breath."
"Slay not your hearts with much food and drink, for the heart is like a farmland which dies if watered excessively."
I don't consider the heart here to mean only the physical heart but also the spiritual heart, our vehicle with which we travel to Allah.
I am nowhere near to the ideal of a few mouthfuls, nor the promise of a third of the stomach for food. My GP tells me that my stomach is roughly the size of my fist. The portions on my plate are bigger than this. To be satisfied with a third of them seems impossible at the moment. Yet remembering every time I eat that I fall short of the ideal has made me humbler. I ask Allah for forgiveness more often, and not only for my shortcomings in respect to eating and drinking. I don't force myself to eat less, rather I am praying to Allah to open my heart so that I won't want so much food. It is getting easier to say no to cakes and biscuits and treats, which are usually served after an already too big meal.
With Allah's help I shall be fasting regularly throughout the year, following the Prophet's advice that the best days for fasting are Mondays and Thursdays or the three days in the middle of the lunar month, the days of the full moon. May Allah help me and give me the strength and yearning that is needed to make it a regular habit.
Looking at all the celebrities and film stars starving themselves for the sake of fame and fortune, it seems incredible that we Muslims can't do it for the sake of Allah. If the spiritual rewards are not tempting enough, at least we could do it for the physical benefits. As the Prophet said in a hadith:
"The stomach is the house of every disease, and abstinence is the head of every remedy, so make this your custom."
Western society is slowly waking up to this wisdom. A recent research in the States found that 75 % of all illnesses are caused by a lifestyle that is counterproductive to health (overeating, eating the wrong type of food, alcohol, drugs, lack of exercise, stress).
Islam is the middle way, the way of moderation. We are asked to enjoy the good things Allah has given us, but not in excess. We can eat and drink to sustain our bodies but not to please our taste buds or to eat away feelings of loneliness, boredom, anxiety, etc. May Allah give us the strength to follow the example of His perfect messenger, the peace and blessings of Allah upon him, and to spend more time feeding our eternal soul through prayer and remembrance than feeding this mortal body with delicatessen.
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