The Gospel Herald -- Promoting the fundamentals of the 1888 message.

“O true believers, eat of the good things which we have bestowed on you for food, and return thanks unto God, if ye serve Him. Verily, He hath forbidden you to eat that which dieth of itself, and blood and swine’s flesh, and that on which any other name but Allah’s hath been invoked.”

(The Qur’an, 2:172, 173)

Allah’s Way to Health, Happiness,
and Longer Life

Allah’s mercy and compassion lead him to care for even the little creatures that he has created. The prophet David (Daud) says that he opens his hand to “satisfy the desires of every living thing.”1 Since we humans are infinitely more valuable than birds or animals, we can assume that he also wants us to be healthy, happy, and to enjoy long life. He was concerned for the health and happiness of his “friend” Abraham.

The Holy Book likewise expresses Allah’s concern for our health and happiness: “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health, and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.”2

Everyone desires that “all may go well with” him, and no one wants things to go wrong. If you bought a new car, you would be very sorry to see it wrecked and declared an insurance write-off long before you had got your use out of it. How much more tragic when our bodies get “wrecked” through sickness, and our life is cut short long before it should be. Someone about to die will usually be prepared to give all his or her wealth in order to be well again.

Some say it is “the will of Allah” when they get sick and die prematurely like the people of the Sahel and Mauritania, where thousands have suffered from drought-inflicted famine. They shrug their shoulders and say, “We are doomed unless Allah wills to rescue us.” Droughts and famines have never been Allah’s will for any people; man himself has ruined his environment and invited disasters.

Would it not be foolishness, yes, even blasphemy, for a drunkard who wrecks his new car, and thereby squanders his family’s possessions, to claim that it is the will of Allah that this calamity should have happened? Did he ask Allah whether he should drink alcohol? Did he listen to Allah’s word? If we learn to take care of our bodies as he has commanded us in his Word, it is much less likely that we will get sick or die prematurely.

In the light of these facts, is it right to say that it is Allah’s will for any of us to destroy our health and make ourselves sick? If you drive your new car wisely and take proper care of it, it will be likely to give you long service. Your body is worth infinitely more. If we follow the divine directions, we too may live long lives and realize the truth of Allah’s promise: “The hoary head [white with age] is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.”3

There are young people who carelessly gamble away their health and even their lives. They say, “I don’t mind if I die young. Nobody cares about me anyway. I’ll just burn my life-candle at both ends, and if I die soon—so what! I belong to myself anyway.” They are mistaken. They do not belong to themselves. We read in the honoured Qur’an that when Allah commanded Abraham to offer his son, he himself provided “a tremendous Victim” in order to redeem the boy.4 The redemption price was blood. That same price has been paid for today’s youth. They are the property of a kind and loving Allah who wants them to be happy and healthy. Many more of today’s youth would be happy if only they understood that they don’t belong to themselves. They are loved!

The light that glows from Abraham’s great sacrifice shines down the ages for us today. One of Jesus’ (Issa’s) apostles says, “Because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to you: offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.”5 Allah did not desire a dead son from Abraham; neither does he desire your death, or that you should be a sick or unhappy person. “A living sacrifice” is a happy one: a healthy, prosperous, long life offered as true worship to the One who has blessed us so abundantly. The care of our health is therefore both a duty and a pleasure!

All who worship God in truth know and believe themselves to be Abraham’s descendants, for he is “the father of all that believe.” They will therefore have a vital sense of self-respect. It is impossible for anyone who believes Allah’s love to regard himself or herself carelessly by descending to the use of degrading liquors or drugs.

If some infidel were to dump a load of rubbish in the sacred mosque, those who worship God would be highly indignant, and rightly so. There is something just as bad that is happening every day, all around the world: people are defiling their bodies, the wonderful creation of Allah!

The great prophet Daniel was faced with the temptation to eat food or to imbibe drink that would be harmful to the body that Allah had given him. We read that he “purposed in his heart that he would not “defile himself” with the “portion of the king’s meat [food],” and “with the wine which he drank.”6 He was a true son of Abraham; he realized that if he ate that kind of food which is harmful to health, he would be dumping rubbish into the body which Allah had created for him.

How can one defile his body?

The use of harmful, unclean food or drink defiles it. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”7 Allah’s will for our healthful, happy living is expressed as follows:

The use of all intoxicating liquors is forbidden. Here are just a few of the divine warnings against this evil:

Wine is a mocker, and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.8

Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty.9

Every descendant of Abraham is a “king” in Allah’s eyes, someone important. Note how he guides us:

It is not for kings, O Lemuel—not for kings to drink wine, not for rulers to crave beer, lest they drink and forget what the law decrees, and deprive all the oppressed of their rights Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish, let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.10

Let us not misunderstand this very wise counsel. The Book is not giving encouragement to poor people to drink and forget their misery! By no means. It is pointing out, through a figure of speech known as irony, the folly of many who do just that, thereby driving themselves further into misery and poverty, like a car that spins its wheels ever deeper into mud. Such persons are not Abraham’s descendants by faith. Beer and wine are no solution to life’s problems. There is no difficulty so bad but that alcohol can make it worse:

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. … In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging [a most dangerous place to be!].

“They hit me,” you will say, “but I am not hurt! They beat me, but I don’t feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?”11

It is pitiful and tragic that a human being can so degrade himself that he actually welcomes such self-punishment and then asks for more! The condition described here fits drug addiction as readily as it fits alcoholism. “Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. … They have no regard for the deeds of the Lord, no respect for the work of his hands.”12 This is defiling the body—having “no respect for the work of his hands.”

Allah forbids any of his people to serve alcoholic drinks to anyone else: “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbours, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk .”13 This is because of his great principle of love.14

What a terrible account bartenders, barmaids, and hosts and hostesses who serve liquor, will face in the Judgment Day! The liquor they have served has injured the people who drank it, and in many cases even led to crime and murder. Even wise men and judges have wronged innocent people because of drinking. “Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions.”15

Kingdoms and empires have been defeated because their rulers were drunk when attacked by invading armies. The fall of Babylon is one such example: Belshazzar, the last king, was drunk the night that the Medo-Persian soldiers stealthily entered the capital. The king was drunk when a rebel soldier plunged a sword through his heart, thus ending the world’s wealthiest empire.16

Allah’s Word says that “drunkards” will not inherit Paradise. The honoured Qur’an speaks of the sin of drink-ing: “They ask thee about intoxicants (al-khamr) and games of chance, Say: In both of them is a great sin.”17 Maulana Muhammad Ali explains this:

“‘Khamr’ means wine or grapewine, … anything or any intoxicating thing that clouds or obscures (literally, covers) the intellect. … The Khamr includes all intoxicating substances. … The prohibition spoken of here as regards both intoxicating liquors and games of chance is made plainer in 5:90: ‘O you who believe, intoxicants and games of chance … are only an uncleanness, the devil’s work; shun it therefore that you may be successful.’”18

One of the greatest social miracles that ever took place on earth was the tremendous change in the Arab tribes due to Prophet Muhammad’s teachings about wine. Maulana Muhammad Ali tells what happened:

The change which these simple words [of the Qur’an] brought about in Arabia will always remain a riddle to the social reformer. The constant fighting of Arab tribes one against the other had made the habit of drink second nature to the Arab, and wine was one of the very few objects which could furnish a topic to the mind of an Arab poet. Intoxicating liquors were the chief feature of their feasts, and the habit of drink was not looked upon as an evil, nor had there ever been a temperance movement among them, the Jews and the Christians being themselves addicted to this evil. Human experience with regard to the habit of drink is that of all evils it is the most difficult to be uprooted.

Yet, but one word of the Holy Qur’an was sufficient to blot out all traces of it from among a whole nation, and afterwards from the whole of the country as it came over to Islam. History cannot present another instance of a wonderful transformation of this magnitude brought about so easily yet so thoroughly.

It may also be added here that Sale’s remark that “the moderate use of wine is allowed” and that only drinking to excess is prohibited, according to some, is absolutely without foundation. The companions of the Prophet never made use of a drop of wine after the prohibition was made known.19

It is related that when the words of the honoured Qur’an were proclaimed by a crier in the streets of Medina, there was an immediate response of the people. Every jar of wine in the Muslim houses was emptied, so that wine flowed in the streets.20

It is a mistake to assume that the Holy Injil permitted the use of alcoholic drinks. Christians who drink, even moderately as they suppose, are going contrary to the teachings of the Bible they profess to obey; and they have departed from the pure teachings of Jesus. He said: “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day [of Judgment] will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch.”21

But, say some, did not Jesus actually perform a miracle to make fermented wine? And did he not serve such to his own disciples? No! Some have mistakenly understood these incidents to give them license to drink.

The word “wine” had two meanings: either referring to fermented wine, which was alcoholic and intoxicating; or unfermented wine, which was the healthful, non-alcoholic kind of fruit juice. The ancient Romans called the latter mustum, made from pressing fresh juice from grapes. Different kinds of grape juice could be blended with spices added for flavour. The ancient “pause that refreshes” was this kind of non-alcoholic drink.

Those people knew very well how to bottle mustum so that it would be kept pure for as long as a year without fermenting. They used tall earthenware jars known as amphora which were corked tightly so as to remain air-tight. The wine did not ferment and was called aei gleukos in Greek, or sempe mustum in Latin. Alcoholic wine was called oionos tropias in Greek, but the expression is not found in the New Testament.

The famous “Last Supper” was instituted during the Jewish Passover time when leaven and intoxicants were forbidden, and therefore the “wine” used had to be non-alcoholic. It was called “This fruit of the vine,” an expression that could mean only an unfermented drink.22 And Jesus would never have changed the water at Cana’s wedding feast into an intoxicating drink when the Holy Book condemned intoxication of any kind.

There is another harmful substance that many people are using today: tobacco. It is an evil that was not invented in ancient times. If anything, it is even more harmful than the use of alcohol.

Suppose an airline should try to solicit your patronage with advertising that boldly declares that one out of three passengers who travel on their planes will die in air accidents. Would you buy a ticket from them? No! Yet it is a clear fact that one out of three people who smoke regularly will eventually die from the effects of their cigarettes; while the health and quality of life of the other two are adversely affected as well.

Scientists have called cigarette addiction “slow-motion suicide.” The British Royal College of Physicians has said that each cigarette cuts 5½ minutes from the smoker’s life. That is one reason why you hear of so many people dying of various diseases in their 40’s and 50’s, long before their proper time has come. Death often strikes them just as they stand on the verge of attaining their ambitions—those accumulative 5½ minutes are suddenly subtracted in one lump sum: death by cancer or coronary failure. Thirty or forty extra years of happy life are gone, and now they must lie in the ground instead.

Health authorities in one Western nation, the USA, estimate that between 360,000 and 400,000 people there die every year from the effects of cigarette smoking.23 As a result, the Western tobacco companies are now beginning to meet stiff opposition to their death-dealing commodity, and are turning to Africa and the Third World to recoup their sagging profits. Reports John Madeley from London:

People in developing countries are, it seems, being persuaded by advertising which implies that affluent people normally smoke—which is not true in the West. WHO (World Health Organization) reports that non-smokers outnumber smokers in Britain, the United States, Sweden, Norway, and other Western countries. … The tobacco industry in Nigeria is said by WHO to have launched a “massive marketing campaign.”24

The same author reports on tests that indicate that cigarettes sold in Britain and the United States contain less than a quarter of the nicotine content of those sold in the Third World, and about half the amount of tar. In other words, the Third World is being exploited!

All who have a regard for the Word of Allah will never use tobacco or any such poison or harmful drug, for the very good reason that they regard the care of their bodies as a sacred responsibility.

Dr. Alexander Jakubovic, a Canadian biochemist, has studied the effects of THC (the ingredient in bhang or marijuana (pot) that produces the so-called “high”). He is convinced that this drug is harmful to the brains of both teenagers and adults. Dr. Robert Heath, a neurologist, has conducted experiments on monkeys’ brains and found that THC hastens aging in the nerve cell nuclei.

Dr. Harris Rosenkrants studied the effects of marijuana on rats and found that their lungs were damaged more by it than by tobacco smoke. Dr. Donald Taskin, a specialist in lung diseases, studied 74 men who smoke bhang and found that “heavy pot smoking does something to the larger airways [of the lungs] that tobacco smoking doesn’t do.” Bhang is a “flight from reality” and from Allah. It is a deceptive attempt to find peace. It’s like taking an aspirin in order to forget the pain of cancer, instead of having surgery to remove the cancer. It becomes a path to death. God loves you as an individual. Why ruin your life by drugs?

Swine’s flesh and other unclean meats are prohibited by the God of Abraham. Yet the world is thousands of years behind in accepting this counsel from Allah.

Moses was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.”25 Doubtless he knew of the foolish medical remedies prescribed by the best physicians of Egypt, as recorded in the “Papyrus Ebers” (an Egyptian medical work of about 1,500 B.C.). For example, this so-called “wisdom” prescribes magic water which had been poured over a heathen idol as the cure for the victims of a poisonous snake bite. It even prescribed the use of animals’ excreta! But Moses turned from all this foolishness and let God teach him true wisdom. He tells us that eating swine’s flesh is unhealthful, along with fish that do not have fins and scales. Generally speaking, the creatures that Allah pronounced unclean are scavengers either on earth, in the sky, or in the seas. The details of this legislation are in the Torah.26

Before the Flood, the prophet Noah (Nuhu) knew the distinction between clean and unclean animals, because God sent the clean animals into the ark by sevens and the unclean ones by twos. After the Flood, only the clean animals were used for sacrifices. Naturally, Abraham’s sacrifices were always according to divine law, for we know that Allah trusted him to “keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.”27 Can he trust you in the same way?

The ancients may not have known of a scientific reason why Allah prohibited the use of these unclean foods, but modern medical science has enlightened us. There is a disease in pork induced by trichinella spiralis, tiny microscopic worms that come from improperly cooked pork which burrow their way into the muscles of humans. The larvae can invade important parts of the body and cause serious diseases. Doctors are often fooled by this disease and diagnose their patients wrongly.

Dr. Maurice Hall, formerly of the Public Health Department in the USA, once said that most cases of trichinosis are missed by the physician. There is wisdom in the words found in the Qur’an:

Forbidden unto you for food are carrion and blood and swine’s flesh and that which had been dedicated unto any other than God.28

Some followers of the Christ have the mistaken notion that their leader cleansed the hogs so that they can now be eaten. We know this cannot be true. A Biblical description of the Judgment Day tells how “those who … eat the flesh of pigs and rats … will meet their end together.” There are many of the people of the Book who follow the truth taught therein, and who never eat pork or other unclean foods.29

The reason why a true worshipper of Allah will not use these forbidden things is because he wants to keep his mind and body in the best possible condition. Think of a radio that is finely tuned and in perfect working order: it is sensitive enough to catch important broadcasts. If it is not in good condition, it cannot “hear” the voices sent through the air by other electronic equipment. In a more real sense than with radio or TV transmissions, the compassionate Allah is sending a message of redemption to the whole world in these important times. Unfortunately, many people cannot “hear” because their minds are confused by the use of improper food and drink, and poisonous substances.

Our eternal security depends on our having the true faith of Abraham.

Chapter 8: Can We Know What Lies Beyond Death?

Index: In Search of the Treasure of Faith

References:

  1. Psalm 145:16, NIV.
  2. 3 John 2, NIV.
  3. Proverbs 16:31.
  4. The Qur’an, 37:107.
  5. Romans 12:1, TEV.5.
  6. Daniel 1:8.
  7. 1 Corinthians 10:31.
  8. Proverbs 20:1, NIV.
  9. Proverbs 23:20, 21.
  10. Proverbs 31:4-7, NIV.
  11. Proverbs 23:29-35, NIV.
  12. Isaiah 5:11, 12, NIV.
  13. Habakkuk 2:15, NIV.
  14. Matthew 7:11, NIV.
  15. Isaiah 28:7, NIV.
  16. See World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 193 (1978 ed).
  17. “The Cow,” 2:219, 220.
  18. The Holy Qu’ran, note 280.
  19. Idem.
  20. Al Jami’ Al Musnad Al Sahih (Hadith) by Al-Iman Abu ’abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Ismail al-Bukhari 43:22.
  21. Luke 21:34-36, NIV.
  22. Matthew 26:29.
  23. Reader’s Digest, “Nicotine: Profile of Peril,” by S.S. Field, September 1973, pp. 77-80, U.S edition.
  24. The London Observer Service.
  25. Acts 7:22.
  26. Leviticus 11:2-9.
  27. Genesis 18:19.
  28. The Qur’an, 5:3.
  29. They are known as Seventh-day Adventists.

Many who profess to follow the teachings of the Holy Bible ignorantly transgress its true teachings, not only in using alcoholic drinks and swine’s flesh and other unclean meats, but in eating blood. They are unaware that Jesus’ apostles expressly forbid eating flesh in which is blood: “You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality’’ (Acts 15:28, 29, NIV). Many who believe the New Testament teachings have become vegetarians partly because of this word, and partly in the desire to return (for the sake of better health) as nearly as possible to the diet that Allah gave man in the beginning at creation (see Genesis 1:29; 3:18). Seventh-day Adventists teach the benefits of a vegetarian diet, and they certainly teach the evil of eating blood which Allah has forbidden.