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Hz.Mohammad
is the top name among the Nabi(s); in
servitude to Allah and
the one who warns the people openly in a simple form.
No matter you believe it or not the things that we know about
Hz.Mohammad’s life both
with the visible and the hidden aspects are very few in comparison with
the things that we do not know. When
we make a thorough investigation of his life which is free from the concepts of time and form,
we can see the following:- All
the work that he had done for
strengthening the spiritual aspect has no relation with ‘’worshippping’’. All his practices;
such as the way
he dressed, behaved, and his
choice of food
had a relation with his spiritual structure in some way. For
example, the hadith which
says ‘’On the Doomsday, among
all the people the
most hungry ones would be those who had been fed
most during their time in the world.’’ This
hadith makes us to think over what effects would overeating have on the structure and
activities of the brain in the long run (which is an incredibly large span
of time). He
had also intensified the above by saying ‘’Eating every single thing that you wish to eat would be considered
as a waste.’’ Here, I would like to remind you that waste is from the point of the one who had done the eating, not from the things that have been eaten. As
a matter of fact, eating more than necessary is harmful for the brain and
the real waste occurs when the brain has to deal with the excess raw
material input leaving aside its main objectives. Our
Rasul, in spite of the fact that he had advised to eat less, used to pay
considerable attention to some meals, especially the dinner. For
this purpose he advised ‘’Do not skip the evening meal. Even if it consists of a
handful of dates eat the evening meal because of the fact that not eating
this meal would make one grow older more quickly.’’ We shall never be able to have a full understanding of his life, however, from his own expressions it becomes apparent that his physiological structure and the perceptive ability of his mind have a relation with his way of eating. For
this reason, Hz.Rasul of
Allah, who was used to investigate the prevailing conditions very well
before making any
applications, had never insisted on eating one type of food and
prohibiting the others. He used to have all kinds of regional food that were available in the climatic conditions of that region in a way suitable with his physiology. When there was a need to balance any kind of food because of its specific property, he enabled the breaking process to take place by eating an alternative for that food. In this manner the conditions for the balancing process were set up. For
this same purpose, he
balanced the heat of the date with the water melon. If there was not an
opposite kind of food, he made maximum use of
what he had eaten. He
never had milk together with fish,
meat and foods of an acidic
quality. He did not have two different kinds of food belonging to the same
category in his meals (such as two kinds of cold food, two kinds of
hot food, two kinds of sweets , foods that cause constipation or
diarrhoea, two kinds of solid or liquid food). He
was careful not to eat at the same meal the foods that were digested
quickly and that needed a long digestion period as well as the foods that
caused constipation and diarrhoea. In addition to these, he did not have
the fried food together with the boiled food. He,
also did not recommend to eat the food that has been cooked the day
before, stayed for one night and re-heated on the following day. For
the sake of supplying glucose he loved to eat the dates, halva (a special
desert made by using grinded sesame seeds) and honey. He
did not eat bread in large amounts, but in small portions together with a
small portion of anything that was available. As
narrated by Hz.Enes Ibnu Malýk Radyallahu anh,
the RaSul of Allah Aleyhissalatu Vesselam had declared ‘’Salt is the master of your food’’ Regarding
the meat he had used the
phrase ‘’the master of all
kinds of food that the humans will have both in this world and in the
afterlife realm.’’ HE
had never found a fault in any kind of food that had been served and
attended to all the invitations without breaking the hearts of the people,
with tenderness and tolerance. When
a fried reptile was served to him he said politely ‘’it
is not prohibited, nor it is considered as a great sin , but it is not
something that my people have got used to eating’’. As
well as the food he had eaten he was also very careful with the manners of
eating and said ‘’I can only
sit as a servant sits and eat as a servant eats.’’ While eating the meal he used to sit by bending his left knee in such a way that it would make a pressure on his stomach. This was done for the purpose of maintaining an early state (feeling) of fullness. Again,
for eating he used three of his fingers.
This was the most appropriate way for holding the food pieces and
it was better than using a metal fork and a knife which absorbed
the energy in the food and changed its taste. Hz.
Abu Hureyre Radýyallahu anhüma narrates; Rasul of Allah Aleyhissalatu Vesselam declared :-‘’All of you! Eat with your right hands, drink with your right hands and give with your right hands; as the devil eats with his left hand, drinks with his left hand and takes with his left hand.’’ Hz.Aiþe
Radýyallahu anh narrates, ‘’The
Rasul of Allah Aleyhissalatu Vesselam had forbidden to leave the table until it was cleared. For
him sleeping with a full stomach was not good. He had said that such an
application would darken the heart. He
had suggested to take a walk after the dinner, then perform the salaat. Our
Rasul of Allah had given much
importance to the concept of ‘’fasting’’ as much as maintaining a
balanced diet. He considered fasting as a bridge that lead the brain to get
opened to the universe
of meanings. He had
left us countless hadiths regarding this subject. Here are some of
these… "You should fast in order to be healthy." "Whoever
helps a fasting person to break his fast either by giving him a date, some
water or a sip of milk, then Allah would be giving him the same good deed
in return." "There
is a door in heaven named as ‘er-Reyyan’. On the Doomsday,
only those who had been fasting
would be able to go through this door." "When
a believer (Mümin) dies his salaat(s) would be
at the head of the bed, the alms that he had given would be on his
right and his fasts would be on his chest." Under the light of the afore mentioned facts, we can say that fasting and a healthy diet together make up a whole which cannot be separated. Every
word and every act of Allah’s
Rasul results from a specific divine reason. We wish that we can be among
those who could make use of the above recommendations of Allah’s
Rasul… Ahmet F. Yuksel
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