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.
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