We believe that a true and comprehensive
understanding of Islam would not be possible without careful recognition of the
Prophetic Tradition and the Prophet's Household. And Allah is the Source of Strength.
Food For Thought
" Billions of people eat everyday and have been eating for thousands if not millions of years. People are eating in airplanes, in space, on islands. Animals eat on mountain tops and in the depths of the oceans as well. Nature's food cycle is beyond our comprehension as each creation, from a giant whale to a small bacteria, has its system of sustenance even in the harshest of ecosystems.
Of the many things which makes us realize that we are merely creations, food is one which continues to remind us of our dependency on others. Whether we are a powerful pharoah, a king, a mighty prophet with miracles, we have to eat everyday, eat something which somene else has cooked, someone else has harvested, someone else has hunted, someone else has slaughtered, someone else has served. No matter who we are and how mighty we are, our dependency on another creation for us to be able to eat every day reminds how non-independent we are and how we rely on others unlike God who needs nothing to rely upon to be God.
This food is so fundamental to our creation and for us to remember that we are a creation, that the people of heaven will be given food (rivers of milk, honey, delicious drink, fruits) and the people of hell will be given food (boiling water) as per Quran [47:15]. Not only is eating a after-life concept, it is also a during death concept where martyrs have been promised sustenance and provisions by Allah himself in Quran [3:169]. As long as our creation exists, in this world or the next, our need to eat will remain, and will be serviced accordingly.
It is the same food that Isa (AS) and Mariam (AS) both used to eat. The Quran laid emphasis on their eating food (5:75) also in a hint how a god or son of god has to toil for food.
All those who believed they are gods, or today, in the intoxication of lust, power, ego, position, feel that they are god-like, must realize when they sit on a dinner table that it is the same food that kings and paupers both eat. It is the same food for which they have to depend on manure of animals and toil of men.
And the gratitude of food must not end during the intake only. Anything wrong with one's digestive system (something we take for granted) might not be fixed even after spending all of the money one has in life. Such a small medical issue is enough to remove kingship out of any powerful tyrant.
No wonder the Prophet (SAW) taught to start eating food with Bismillah, because it is this food what Allah feeds others with and not is fed himself (Quran 6:14). "
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