Why Islam Forbids Pork?
By: Rashid Shamsi
(The Muslim World League Journal, Rajab 1420 - October 1999)

Food and drink have direct effect on our health. That is why Islam has
prescribed regulations about our food and drink. It lays great
emphasis on our physical as well as moral health, because both of
these are equally important for a healthy society. The abstention from
eating pork is one of the steps taken by Islam to practise hygiene and
to attain purity of soul.

Islam, for the cultivation of inner faculties, insists upon the
cleanliness of body and the purification of soul through Salaat
(prayers) Zikr (remembrance of Allah) and other devotional duties.
Islam teaches us how to attain the virtues and how to give up bad
habits because both good and bad grow in the man according to his
upbringing, education and environment.

A human being has natural desires: food, sleep and *** being the three
primary ones. He has also other natural emotions: sorrow, happiness,
love, fear, disgust and avarice etc. Islam doesn't recommend the
complete abrogation of these impulses but offers a method of
controlling them through religious education and discipline.

The prohibition of eating pork in Islam is relevant in this con****.
There is a saying in English that "a man becomes what he eats."
According to physicians and medical experts, pork is a harmful diet.
Consumption of swine-flesh creates lowliness in character and destroys
moral and spiritual faculties in a man.

Body and Soul

The life of a man is a compound of body and soul. Anything, which is
harmful for the body, hurts the soul as well. Consumption of swine-
flesh reduces the feeling of shame and as such the standard of
modesty. Those nations, which consume pork habitually, have a low
standard of morality with the result that virginity, chastity and
bashfulness are becoming a thing of the past in Europe today. The
number of unwed mothers is on the increase despite of the use of pills
and other contraceptives.

According to a report, 60 to 70% of girls in Sweden become mothers
before marriage. The formula of "skin to skin is no sin" is taking its
toll but there is hardly any feeling of shame or remorse over the end-
result. Since the European nations have become addicted to wine and
pork, ***ual freedom with all its attendant evils has got ingrained in
their culture. Consequently, homo***uality has been legalized by the
British Parliament.

The Holy Qur'an has prohibited the swine-flesh, hence the Muslims
would not dare touch it. The Bible has also forbidden swine-flesh, but
Christians disregarded this order and started consuming it. The
Europeans now proclaim that pork is a very powerful diet, rich in
protein. Some of them further argue that since there is a great
scarcity of food-stuff in the world and swines are available in
abundant quantity, they should be consumed in the diet to overcome the
food shor***e. If this argument is true, why don't they use dog's meat
as dogs too are available in abundance? The Europeans perhaps hate the
mere mention of dog's meat in the same way as the Muslims shun pork.

Another wrong notion about swine-flesh is that its consumption
lengthens life-span, although this is a pure myth and absurdity. On
the contrary, people, who abstain from pork and liquor, have a longer
span of life. The Muslims in Central Asia bear a testimony to this
truth.

However, in the consumption of flesh Muslims are required to be
selective and to distinguish between Halaal (Lawful) and Haraam
(Unlawful). This step leads automatically to the deeper understanding
of the need for the cultivation of a pure human nature. As blood is
virtually our life-stream and whatever we consume ultimately affects
the blood system, it is, therefore, necessary to exercise choice in
the selection of our food and drinks as part of the requirements of
the Shariah.

There are certain food and drinks specified by Allah, and His
Messenger Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as forbidden. The
prohibition of these food and drinks is not by any means an arbitrary
action or an unwarranted decree of Allah. It is the first and foremost
a divine intervention in the best interest of man and for his own
benefit.

The reasons behind the Divine intervention are numerous. They are of a
nature intellectual and spiritual, moral and mental, physical and
economic. And the sole purpose is to show man how to develop himself
according to an upright course of life in order to be a healthy unit
in the structure of the family, then of society and eventually of
humanity at large.

Reliable medical doctors and social scientists are able to realize how
those food and drinks forbidden by Islam are harmful and destructive
to the human spirit and morality as well as to the physique and moral
fibre of man and to verify the benefits of Islamic legislations on the
subjects.

The prohibition is based on the aim of the purification of one's
nature, because food, when consumed, doesn't merely enter the stomach
and intestines and become excreta. It is absorbed and ****bolized into
the system and circulated to all parts of the human body, including
the brain, and this in no small way affects man's nature.

Take a look at the nature of the pig for example. The pig is naturally
lazy and indulgent in ***, it is dirty, greedy and gluttonous. It
dislikes sunlight and lacks the spirit and will to "fight." It eats
almost anything, be it human excreta or anything foul and unwholesome.
Amongst all animal flesh, pork is the favoured cradle of harmful
germs. Pork also serves as a carrier of diseases to mankind. It is for
this reason that its flesh is not suitable for consumption.

Some people have argued that the "modern pig" reared in farms is given
only clean foods, therefore, its flesh should be consumable. The
answer is that you may feed the pig on clean, wholesome food, but you
can't change its nature. It is still a pig and will always stay so. A
pig is not a plant and you cannot change it by bud-grafting.

Medical Reports

Dr. E. Kazim. M.D. in his article "Medical aspects of forbidden foods
in Islam" (July 1981 issue of Muslim Journal has described diseases
carried or caused by the flesh of the swine.

He writes:

The pig is a scavenger. It is an omnivorous animal. It eats
everything. There are many diseases carried from swine to man,
particularly parasite infestations. Lately extensive research has been
focused on senility-old age is characterized by hardening of inner
lining of the blood vessels of the heart, brain etc. a process called
atheroselerosis. When a clot forms, it results in coronary thrombosis
or a heart attack, cerebral thrombosis or stroke.

Different dietary factors are responsible for atheroselerosis. Gross
atheroma may be produced in rabbit by feeding it with cholesterol, but
when you add lard (derived from hog fat) to the cholesterol, the
incidence of atheroma is increased and thus you would produce coronary
thrombosis, and myocardial infraction.

Besides, lard contains 2800 units of vitamin D per 100 grams and no
vitamin A at all. Lately vitamin D has been held responsible for
atheroma, by causing increased absorption of calcium in the blood
vessels. In human beings, serum cholesterol is not dependent on the
intake of cholesterol in the diet, but depends upon the proportion of
animal fats in the diet, which elevates the beta-lipo protein level in
the blood. Animal fats contain saturated fatty acids and these
saturated fatty acids have been found to be as one of the causes of
atheroma in man. Medium fat bacon contains 25% proteins and 55% fat.

According to medical research, the fat ******* in pork is more than
any other meat (beef, mutton etc.) and it takes longer to digest. Dr.
M Jaffer in an article in the Islamic Review (London) of January 1997
issue has listed 16 kinds of harmful germs, which have been discovered
in pork in modern researches and the diseases, which could be caused
by them. The number of patients suffering from tapeworm disease is the
highest in the world among pork eating nations. Other diseases
attributed to pigs are caused by tri-chinelia spirates and intestinal
worms occupy first place among such nations too.

Dr. Glen Shepherd wrote the following on the dangers of eating pork in
Washington Post (31 May 1952).

"One in six people in USA and Canada have germs in their muscles -
trichinosis 8 from eating pork infected with trichina worms. Many
people who are infected shows no symptoms. Most of those, who do have,
recover slowly. Some die; some are reduced to permanent invalids. All
were careless pork caters".

He continued "No one is immune from the disease and there is no cure.
Neither antibiotics nor drugs or vaccines affect these tiny deadly
worms. Preventing infection is the real answer."

After reading the statement of Dr. Shepherd, one can realize that
there is no real guarantee of safety when eating pork that one would
not be affected by trichina worm. That is why modern doctors advise
three prohibitions during illness: no liquor, no pork and no smoking.

Muslims follow the divine law which is much higher than the medical
advice. The Glorious Qur'an says, "So eat of the lawful and good food
which Allah has provided for you, and thank the bounty of your Lord if
it is Him you serve. He has forbidden for you only carrion and blood
and swine-flesh and that which has been immolated in the name of any
other than Allah; but he who is driven thereto, neither craving nor
transgressing, Lo! then Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." (16:114-115)

The above is the order from the Creator of the universe and the
Supreme Law-Giver. All Muslims are under the obligation to obey it.
This is a plain and straightforward answer to those, who usually ask
why Muslims abstain from eating pork. Nevertheless, there is no sin,
if a Muslims is forced by famine or starvation to eat pork in order to
save his life.
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