Lawful And Pure Food

LESSON # 169 FROM HOLY QUR’AN

BAQARAH – 2 (The Cow)

Lawful And Pure Food

Verse –168 of 286, Section – 21 (Part 2) 

O mankind! Eat of that which is lawful and wholesome in the earth, and follow not the footsteps of the devil. Lo! He is an open enemy for you.

Yaaa-‘ayyuhan-naasu  kuluu  mimmaa  fil-‘arzi  Halaalan-  tay-yibaa.  Wa  laa  tattabi-‘uu  khutuwaatish-Shay-taan.  ‘In-nahuu  lakum  ‘aduw-wum-mu-biin.

Lesson

In this verse the God Almighty addressed the entire human beings and declared the difference between lawful and unlawful, and determined compulsory two conditions for the eatables and drinkable things:

• It should be lawful
• It should be pure and clean

Halaalun – the thing which is not forbidden by Allah Almighty to eat or drink that is called lawful according to the Divine’s law, and which has not been disliked or not fixed as unlawful, for example: water, vegetables, meat, pulses etc.  

Tay-yiban – (pure, clean, fine, nice) those things which are lawful including pure and clean from filth and nastiness. 

Applying two conditions by Islam in the food (lawful and pure) it has produced a very great excellence. Due to these principles each that thing which is not pure and clean, is dangerous or hurtful for the body and soul, or that has not gotten lawfully, to eat, drink or use of it is forbidden.

The Messenger of Allah Almighty (glory, grace, blessings and peace be upon Him) took too much care of pure, clean and lawful that those things smell of which usually take ill upon health, declared odious and their use before coming to the mosque has been prohibited by Him (glory, grace, blessings and peace be upon Him) so that it might not take ill on the nature of the devout associates. 

The Arabs had declared some things unlawful of their own accords for instance the animals left loose in the name of idols and likewise some other foods. And also they began to use some forbidden things like mother’s milk. Islam forbade from it, accordingly there is a Saying of the Prophet (glory, grace, blessings and peace be upon Him), “The person whose meal is unlawful, clothes are unlawful and food is also unlawful, how his prayer might be accepted?” 

Allah Almighty commanded that the people who don’t care about lawful, pure and clean, they follow the devil and the devil is the worst enemy of the human being. He will never be the well-wisher of the mankind.

Transliteration in Roman Script & English Translation of Holy Qur’an written by Marmaduke Pickthall, Published by Paak Company, 17-Urdu Bazar, Lahore and Paraphrase collected from Dars e Qur’aan published By Idara Islah wa Tableegh, Lahore (translated by Muhammad Sharif) (http://hltsharif.blogspot.com) (muhammadsharif276@gmail.com)