EATING OF PORK FORBIDDEN IN ISLAM?

WHY IS THE EATING OF PORK (PIG MEAT) FORBIDDEN IN ISLAM?

The fact that consumption of pork is prohibited in Islam is well known. The following points explain various aspects of this prohibition:

Eating Pork is forbidden in the Quran

 The Quran prohibits the consumption of pork in many verses including: 2:173, 5:3, 6:145 and 16:115.

"He has only forbidden to you dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allah". (Al Baqara 2:173)

"Prohibited to you are dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allah , and [those animals] killed by strangling or by a violent blow or by a head-long fall or by the goring of horns, and those from which a wild animal has eaten, except what you [are able to] slaughter [before its death], and those which are sacrificed on stone altars, and [prohibited is] that you seek decision through divining arrows. That is grave disobedience". (Al-Mā'idah 5:3)

Say, "I do not find within that which was revealed to me [anything] forbidden to one who would eat it unless it be a dead animal or blood spilled out or the flesh of swine - for indeed, it is impure - or it be [that slaughtered in] disobedience, dedicated to other than Allah" (Al-'An`ām 6:145).

"He has only forbidden to you dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allah". (An-Naĥl 16:115)

The above verses of the Holy Quran are sufficient to satisfy Muslims as to why pork is forbidden and that any prohibition in the holy book is ultimately for their own good.

Further, Pigs have NO neck that makes it impossible to be slaughtered the Islamic way (The Halaal way) by the insertion of a knife in the neck and thus getting rid of the blood, which contains an abundance of uric acid, a toxic chemical substance that can be injurious to human health.

Disease caused by eating pork

Medical terms are excluded for easy understanding.

The pig, the worms and the pig-eater!

Eating the meat of pig can cause over SEVENTY different types of latent diseases as their body contains many TOXINS and deadly parasitic WORMS like tapeworm, roundworm, pinworm, hookworm, etc. If you eat pork you are likely to inject many of these worms or their eggs into your body! Most dangerous among them is the Tapeworm.

These worms can enter the human body through the mouth, anus, nose, or skin, with most species attaching themselves to the intestinal tract. This is why you have to stay away from pig.

Once inside the body, these worms lay eggs and raise a family! The baby worms along with their parents stroll inside your body and can reach any organ easily.

If they enter the brain it can cause memory loss. If they enter the heart it can cause heart attack, if they enter the eyes, it can cause blindness, and if they enter the liver, it can cause liver damage. Simply put, it can damage almost all the organs of the body.

One in six people in the US and Canada has trichinosis from eating trichina worms (roundworms), which are found in pork.

These worms are found in the flesh of pig and the diseases caused by eating pork are incurable once it reaches beyond a certain stage.

Influenza virus

Influenza or flu is one of the most lethal illnesses that pigs share with humans. This illness is harboured in the lungs of pigs during summer and tends to effect pigs and humans in the cooler months.

Influenza virus is common throughout pig populations worldwide. People with regular exposure to pigs are at increased risk of flu infection and other several fatal diseases.

Pork sausage contains bits of pig's lungs, so those who eat pork sausage tend to suffer more during the epidemics of influenza.

Pork has fat building material

Pork has very little muscle building material and contains excess of fat. This fat gets deposited in the vessels and can cause hypertension and heart attack. America is home to the most obese people in the world!

Those who consume pork are more prone to obesity because of the high fat content in pork. In this group, blood cholesterol level is frequently higher than normal; pork-eaters are more susceptible to arteriosclerosis, which may result in cardiovascular diseases, malfunction of the brain blood-circulation, vascular pathology of the lower limbs, etc.

Eating pork also leads to GALLSTONES.

Apart from the above mentioned, there are a host of other noxious diseases caused by eating pork. Most of the time it claims life. 

What do pigs eat?

The pig is one of the filthiest animals on earth. It lives and thrives on muck, faces (shit or poop) or excreta and dirt. Often trash is collected and fed to pigs.

Pigs will scavenge and eat any kind of food, including dead insects, worms, tree bark, rotting carcasses, garbage, small animals and even other pigs. Surprisingly, pigs eat their own babies! They eat anything and everything.

Even if pigs are bred in clean and hygienic conditions they are kept together in farms or barns and they simply cannot resist eating filthy substances or shit from other pigs and of theirs own. They are just filthy by nature.

Another interesting fact is that the pig excretes only 2% of its total uric acid content; the remaining 98% remains an integral part of the body.

Read The Labels

The law requires that food manufacturers provide ingredient information on the food labels. That makes our job easier. All we need is to read the labels carefully. To be sure, ingredient labels are not the most readable part of many food packages, and they may not always contain sufficient information to determine the Halal status of a product. But reading food ingredient labels is the first essential step in that direction. As you read the labels, especially look for the following ingredients. They deserve a hard look:

Bakery and Cereal Products

Look for these in all bakery and cereal products: Gelatin, mono- and di-glycerides, animal shortening, whey. In cereals look for marshmallows. (They contain gelatin)

Fruits and Vegetables

Additives and preservatives may be added in the preparation of processed and canned fruits and vegetables. Look for: Gelatin, mono- and di-glyceride, cheeses, alcohol or wine.

Candies

Look for: Animal fat, gelatin, alcohol, whey, glycerol, glycerine, and marshmallows.

Meet The Suspects

Now that we have learned how to spot the suspect ingredients on a food label, here is more information that will help us decide whether these ingredients can be considered Halal or non-Halal.

Lard

Lard is a saturated fat obtained from swine (pigs), particularly from the abdominal cavity of the animal. Any food containing lard is completely Haram.

Mono- and di-glycerides

Mono-glyceride and di-glyceride are lipid (fat) molecules used as emulsifiers in shortening, bakery, and dairy products. These may be manufactured from vegetable oils, beef fat, lard, or marine oils. Therefore, Muslims should stick to labels saying vegetable or marine mono- and di-glvcerides.

Shortening

Shortening is a blend of fat and/or oil. If the label simply says 'shortening', stay away from it; it may even be lard. When the label says 'vegetable shortening' without listing all the vegetable sources or adding, the words "pure" or "100%". Even 1% lard will make it 100% haram.

Enzymes

Enzymes are a protein substance found and formed in all living cells that bring about chemical reactions inside or outside of the body. Enzymes can be extracted from animal sources, calves and pigs. Vegetable enzymes are okay.

IMPORTANT:

Prohibition of eating pork does not imply that pigs are evil. There is nothing in Islam that actually declares the animal to be evil, or anything of the sort. Not eating pork is a very simple means of showing our devotion to our Lord.