Azam Ali, Ahmadi Moslem
Chapter 06 – Food
You are what you eat
Abba Ji rigidly believed in the concept that You are what you eat. He followed it in all the foods he and his family ate. He enforced that rule in all eatables and eateries where we went.
Man and science always knew that the food we eat builds bones and brain, develops desires and decisions, makes the muscles in the body, fills the fiber of the soul, and leads to success or failure in this Life – and the Beyond. Even the farmers know that feeding quality food to their cattle puts on them most meat. I think Mark Haroldson was the first person from whose cassette recording I heard around 1978 that “Most Americans hate reading books but love drinking beer … No wonder their bellies are bigger than their brains.”
Manufacturers of modern synthetic drugs relying upon their paid researchers claim their wonder drugs to cure ills regardless of what a person eats, drinks, breathes, smokes or where or how he lives. But the practitioners of alternative or holistic medicine entering the 21st Century have collected sufficient scientific data to the contrary. Today there is clustered support that proves that indeed it is food, and the only food put in a body, that protrudes out of that body.
Father followed this rule in raising his family in the first half of the 20th Century. With a vigilant hawk’s eye he saw, screened and scanned every item of food that entered our house. He kept out what he disapproved of long before we even saw it, much less eat it. He did everything humanly possible to continually ensure that even the tiniest part of the blood, bones or brains of his children was made from the legitimate income and lawful clean food.
Abba Ji followed the Holy Qor-aan Commandment down to the letter.
Ko-loo mim-maa fil ur-dzay ha-laa-lun toy-ya-bun سُوۡرَةُ البَقَرَة – Ch:002, Verse 169 You eat out of what is on earth, lawfully and cleanly. 002:169
Ko-loo min toy-yay-baa-tay maa ra-zuq naa koom Waush-ko-roo lil-laa-hay in koon-toom ee-yaa-ho tau-bo-d00n سُوۡرَةُ البَقَرَة – Ch: 002, Verse 173 Eat from the clean foods We have provided you. And thank Allah. You should worship Him Alone. 002:173
Ko-loo min maa ra-za-qa ko-mo ol-laa-ho سُوۡرَةُ الاٴنعَام – Ch: 006, Verse 143 Eat from what Allah has provided you 006:143
Sometimes Father’s strictness created situations which our young minds failed to grasp. Once I was with him when he went into a restaurant. He introduced himself as a Judge, required to see the kitchen and the cooking facility, and inquired about the food that was cooked. Satisfied with the investigation he took a table and ordered food for the family. Afterwards the restaurateur — out of deference to Father and the local custom — refused to take money for the food we ate. Father ordered the restaurateur to take his money or face the consequences for attempting to bribe a judge by serving free food to him and his family. The restaurateur had no option but to accept Father’s money.
Prayers and Food
My mother passed away when I was 13 and my youngest sibling was 1 year old. Then on my father spent enormous amount of time and exercised extreme care that only acceptable food reached his kids. He told us to help him by eating only what was a steppingstone for good health and did not have the remotest chance to create or develop any tendency of moving towards sin or Satan.
Father and my mother emphasized the relationship of prayer and food. Although today I cannot pinpoint the first time or place when and where we were told what to eat, I do remember the following words of the Holy Qor-aan.
Wa laa tut-ta-bay-oo kho-to-waa-tay ish-shai-taan سُوۡرَةُ البَقَرَة Ch: 002, Verse 169 & سُوۡرَةُ الاٴنعَام Ch: 006, Verse 143 And do not follow the footsteps of Satan. 002:169 & 006:143
Our parents led us to be grateful to God for the food He gave us. They taught us to pray before and after eating. Today I can’t say how young I was when taught what to pray, but I recall always using the following words of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah upon him.
Before eating … Bis-mil-laa-hay alaa ba-ra-ka-til-laa-hay I start with the name of Allah upon the present blessings of Allah — Hadeeth
Before eating lawful meats … Bis-mil-la-hay al-laa-ho uk-bur — Tukbeer al-hilal I start with the name of Allah, the Greatest. — Hadeeth
While eating if I forgot to pray before … Bis-mil-laa-hay uw-wa-la haa wa aa-kha-ra haa I start with the name of Allah this activity, from its beginning till its end. – Hadeeth
After finishing our eating … Ul-hum-do lil-laa-hay il-la-ze ut-aa-ma naa wa sqaa naa wa ja-aa-la naa may-na ul-mos-lay-mee-n Thank God who fed us, gave us drink, and made us one of the Moslem. – Hadeeth
Food, The proper, permissible and pious
Father assisted by both our mothers taught us right from our lives about the foods that the Holy Qor-aan had permitted or prohibited. We could eat from what Allah has given you in permissible and properly purified form as stated above in 002:169 but we were ingrained to avoid the prohibited things of all categories such as the following.
In-na maa hur-ra-ma alai ko-mo ol-mai-ta-ta Wa ud-da-ma wa lauh-mul khin-zee-ray wa maa O-hil-la bay he lay ghai-ray il-laa-hay سُوۡرَةُ البَقَرَة — Ch: 002, Verse 174 –The crux repeated in Soo-ras Ul-Maa-e-dah – 005:004
He certainly has prohibited on you the Dead And the Blood and the Flesh of swine and That which has been Sacrificed with a name other than Allah. 002:174 – Crux in 005:004
Father explained the phenomenon in plain language that we as children understood and internalized for use day in and day out that man is made of what we eat or avoid.
No wonder I firmly believe – and in raising my own children often told them – that every drop of blood and bones I had from Father was a product of legitimate income that procured lawful foods and noble thoughts that provided a pious environment.
Charity (= Sud-quah) Food
In the 7th century, the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah upon him, said that Upper hand (that gives) is better than the lower one (that takes). He practiced Iss-laam by giving in charity generously. He gave all he could but strictly forbade it’s eat by him and his progeny.
Once he was among people with his grandson in lap when charity ( صدقه ) dates were brought. The infant picked up a date and put it in his mouth. He, s.a.w., immediately put his finger in the child’s mouth, pulled the date out, and then rolled his finger around kid’s gums to ensure that every particle of food was out. He s.a.w., did not want even the tiniest particle of charity food go down into his grandson’s stomach.
In the 15th century, Baba Nanak was born a Hindu in Punjab. He embraced Iss-laam and for pilgrimage went to Makka (See 5 Acts of worships or pillars of Islam). He saw in his Middle East travels that beggary violating the Teachings of Islam had ruined the Moslems economically. He explicitly stopped his followers from begging (See Religion, Islam and Sikhs).
The anti-beggary culture among Sikh flourished. Nearly five (5) centuries later it still is so fundamental that every Sikh does work and earn. In 1970’s in St Louis, Mo, Sardar Puji Singh told me, “You will never see a Sikh anywhere in the world beg for charity.”
In the 19th century, Ahmadiyya sect emerged (See Islam and Sect Formation). Khaleefatool II Mirza Mahmood Ahmad had advised Ahmadis to be small Mohammed s.a.w., paying charity and not taking to live off it. Early Ahmadis like my maternal grandfather Chaudhri Faqir Muhammad and my paternal Chaudri Rahmat Ali Haji followed the advice. From their humble origins, today their progenies have reached lofty economic heights. Poverty and degradation of those who collect charity and live off it are well-known.
My father not only himself followed the Holy Prophet, s.a.w., but trained us children to do the same also. He duplicated that the upper hand was better than the lower hand. He donated under many titles like Wasiyyut, Tahrik-e-Jadeed, etc., including that for his then ten (10) children, his living wife, his deceased wife who was our mother, and some ancestors. The total at times exceeded 51% of his income. He gave to charity, never took anything from it.
In 1990’s Khaleefatool Massih IV Mirza Tahir Ahmad warned Ahmadis in England, Germany, Canada and other western countries where many of them had taken refuge since their persecution after Pakistan Constitutional Amendment in 1974 that declared Non-Muslim although the whole wide world knows and treats them as Moslem. The refuges received charity of social benefits, but their leader told them to wean off it as fast as they could. Otherwise, he said, they would dig their future generations deep into a life of deprivation and destitution.
Giver. Not a Taker.
Abba Ji practiced Iss-laam by giving to charity generously. He followed the directions laid down in the Holy Qor-aan as best as he could. He being a Judge was paid salary on the 1st of a month. On the Day of his Harvest, he paid out of his salary in practicing the Commandment.
Wa aa-too huq-qa hoo yao-ma ha-saa-day he سُوۡرَةُ الاٴنعَام – Ch: 006, Verse 124
And come up with His share the day of its harvest. 006:142
Father gave all he could but strictly forbade it being eaten by him and his progeny because his following the Best Exemplar meant that he had to believe, practice and inculcate in his progeny that we belonged to the class of Givers and not the Takers.
Often it was hard for us little kids to understand such deep philosophic concepts. At home we ate simple food. But the sumptuous food (like charity offerings to sages and shrines) sent to our home were by our Father instantly refused, returned to sender, or given away to the servants.
Father made us believe that that the food consisting of charity was totally prohibited for us since we belonged to the class and category of that progeny of the givers, not the takers who were disallowed eating even a morsel of food from charity.
Hard times or harsh conditions come to all human beings. But those of the said progeny who avoid prohibitions are known to be economically far better than millions of others who do the opposite (See Tr – Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem – As seen by daughter).
