The Sunnah and Health

[Mujib]

The Sunnah and Health

By Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson

[This following article is based on a lecture given by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson in London, England. It was previously published in the Muslim Word?a monthly newsletter in Toronto?in the May, 1998 issue. This current version includes a new introduction, several additions, and has been edited.]

?We raised them up from their sleep so that they might question one another. A speaker from among them said, ?How long have you tarried?? They said, ?We have tarried a day or part of a day.? Another said, ?Your Lord best knoweth what you have tarried.? Now send one of you with this sliver coin into the city, and let him see (yanzuru) what food (ta?aama) is purest (azkaa) and bring you nourishment (rizq) from it. And let him be courteous in order not to inform others about his presence? (Qur?an 18:19).

Food is the foundation of our material existence. During our life in the womb we were sustained materially by our mother?s nourishment through the umbilicus. We left the wombs and the umbilicus was severed to begin another stage of nourishment, the breast. Upon being weaned, we began to eat foods of various textures and tastes, acquiring lifelong preferences during this stage, some good, and others bad. There is a relationship between food and language that is quite revealing. Our metaphors are often derived from our necessary relationship with food. We talk about sweet talk and bitter words, being hungry for love and thirsty for knowledge, of the ?milk of human kindness? and ?one man?s meat being another?s poison.? When speaking of the need for change, we say things like, ?I need to wean myself from this,? or ?I?m going to abstain from vain talk.?
All of our metaphors that relate to food and drink, hunger and satiety, indicate the central role that food plays in our lives and how profound its experience is to us.

Few people think of the relationship that food has to their health. Before we speak about food, let us ask the question ?what is health?? Most people believe that health is an overall state of well-being, the absence of pain, and the relative vitality of the body.


Complete article here.