Does Islam permit to eat pork ? A linguistic explanation of the word khin-ziri
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I am reading the book of Aidid Saffar, Mental Bondage in the name of God , and I come through a confusing matter.
He writes
The word Khin literally means rotten, stink or bad - Ziri means that you see.
Khinziri does not refer to swine - a livestock that is part of God?s provisions to
mankind (51 & 6142). It is obvious the prohibition is limited to the nature and
condition of the food - not the species of animals. It is illogical to imagine that
God in His wisdom created swine and allows it to be domesticated and then
prohibits its meat. Wildlife hunting is permitted - wild boars are not mentioned
as prohibited game. In 560 God uses the word kh-na-zi-ro to signify stinking as
the state of condition of a person - but religionists say humans can become pigs.It sounds disturbing...
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No. The Quran does NOT allow the flesh of swine.
Let's not go overboard here. There's alot of things that could be discussed as to whether
it is unlawful or lawful, if it should be avoided or not, like alcohol, the mixing of the sexes, perhaps even pre-marital sex. Does Zina mean adultery(i.e cheating on your spouse) or consensual sex between two persons? (I don't pretend to have the answer for the record)
However, the flesh of swine/pork, is forbidden to eat for Jews, Christians and Muslims. It's in the Torah, the Bible and the Quran. Khanzir means pork, nothing else.
And if you want to look at it completely secularly;
I have atheist friends who do not ear pork simply because even their dietists say that it is
the worst kind of meat to put in your body. It can give you the stomach worm, salmonella among other diseases. Pigs will eat anything, their own feces and even dead human corpses.
Other than that, there is some truth to what the Nation of Islam(I have nothing to do with them btw) say about the pig. It IS actually related to the rat.
Just like dogs are related to wolves, and cats to lions, the pig is related to the rat.
Here's a picture of the australian rat, the bandicoot which is related to what people stuff in their mouthshttp//www.arkive.org/media/59/598A7243-1146-45E4-96F6-AA20BF104F4C/Presentation.Medium/Adult-western-barred-bandicoot.jpg
Now stay away from that pork brothers and sisters!
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Just have to clarify what I wrote a bit. Of course alcohol should be avoided, however I don't see where it is absolutely forbidden and rejected as 100% haram. It seems to me that if you're born in to a society that drinks and in to a secular family, quitting alcohol comes in stages.
First it's
Do not approach prayer with a drunken mind-state.
Then In the khamr, there are some benefits, but the bad outweighs the good.
And at last Gambling and khamr are used as tools by Sheytan so stay away from it for it is better for you.
And for the sex-part, I understand the benefits of not having sex until you're married, both as an individual and for society at large. However, Zina has always been translated as Adultery which is EXTRA-marital sex. And according to Islamic history, Mut'a was apparently practised in the early Muslim community. And Mut'a is nothing other than pre-marital sex, temporary shmemporary marriage. It's just like having a girlfriend whom you're only thinking about getting married with.
I don't know, Allahu a3lam, He knows best.But seriously stay away from that pork! Did you see that bandicoot? Eeew.
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It is not in stages. Allah is not a time-deprived idiot when it comes to giving out commands for the benefit of humanity, we are. The command is to avoid intoxicants, this is fundamentally connected to the state of mental intoxication or it would not be referred to in that manner. There is nothing wrong with the intoxicants themselves until they push one to cause sin via ingestion - they are merely chemicals just like everything else in the universe. So handling alcohol, using it in industrial processes, there is no issue with that. However, getting intoxicated on alcohol is a different story.
One cannot connect to the source of creation properly in an intoxicated state. Alcohol intoxication for instance significantly reduces inhibition, the very thing that makes sure we check that our actions are in tune with the creator's will. In essence, the height of the alcoholic fluid in it's container is equivalent to the amount of power/lubrication one provides the naturally rusty gears of shaitan.
What allah is saying in the quran is a simple mathematical statement. The net bad outweighs the net good. This is obvious for gambling - you stand a 1 in x chance of winning but there is a (x-1) in x chance of losing. Combined with the addictiveness of gambling, this simply sends people into a self-reinforced cycle of throwing money around for no beneficial gain. If it was presented to people in the rawest way, where they were made to labour hard for money 50 days in a row then each day a 50-sided dice was rolled deciding if they were paid or not, who the hell would be happy with roughly 50 days work for 1 days pay? Regardless, all that work was very real, the only difference is that the 49 days of pay has simply transferred owners because of the stupidity of the worker. And this is a classic manner of hoarding money, and in general, unfair transactions.
Now this is identical with intoxicants, it is just that the probabilities are modified so there is more chance of a good time occuring but at the same time, the stakes vastly increase - an overwhelming amount of chaos in society comes from the consumption of alcohol alone, it leads to all the other major sins as a result of the decreased inhibition.
Now suppose that people computed rationally that they are definitely going to have a good time with a couple of drinks (the 1 in x chance of winning), do you really think that God would give two shits? Nobody is harmed, no sin has been caused, if anything, people experienced God's reality in a nicer way for a short period of time. The issue is not whether intoxicants should be prohibited because the book does not prohibit them, rather that the conditions in which people are allowed to be intoxicated must be heavily restricted.
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I agree that the Quran prohibits pork, but I get annoyed to hear people rationalize it. The idea that pork is somehow a terribly dangerous substance is just a myth propagated by Jews and Muslims. It's a much healthier meat than red meat. Any meat undercooked (especially fish) can spread parasitic worms. The sheer resilience of pigs sustained many races of people who lived in areas not suited for other types of livestock.
The only reasonable explanation for the prohibition of pork is the eschewing of all gentile practices by the descendants of Abraham and the continuation of those prohibitions well after they lost context.
Edit There's also an obviously aesthetic approach to diet in the Hebrew Bible and Quran. Don't eat beasts of burden, don't cook meat in its mothers milk, don't drink blood, or eat limbs of living animals, etc. And of course pigs roll in filth. Not significant to nutrition, but off putting when one can afford that kind of dietary dilemma.
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Peace
Salmonella is a bacteria that is found in many animals and humans, but is most likely to contaminate humans through consuming chicken and eggs.
Trichinella is a parasitic roundworm that is found in pigs, and as well as many wild animals. By consuming pork, one can get infected with trichinella.
As far as I know both can be destroyed through heat. So why is pork forbidden, and not chicken?
I would have to research it but, trichinella could be more heat resistant, and thus less likely to be completely destroyed, and cause illness. Trichinosis could be a more deadly infection than salmonellosis. I would have to look it up in a microbiology textbook. But if God prohibited it, I am sure he has a real good reason. Id rather have a more scientific reason than "pigs are dirty".
I do remember reading many years back in a history book of other cultures, (not jewish or muslim), that would not eat pork, because of basic epidemiology that showed illness and consuming pork related. Rather, pigs were kept on the outskirts of town, where they were very useful for sanitation purposes (ie. eat garbage). I would have to look it up again.
At the same time as Cushan mentioned, many cultures historically relied heavily on pork meat, especially the warmer south American Islands where pigs were roasted for a long time over open spit fires. (This might have been enough heat to kill all the worms. Also there is evidence that trichinella colonization increases as the climate gets colder).
Unfortunately, the internet does not have all the answers, but I can go look up a few books, and post a new reply with references, based on what I read in the next couple of days. Like you Cushan, I am also annoyed by how its rationalized.
I know Muslim parents, who forbid their children from having a toy pig, or even reading books about pigs. I am not joking, when I know of a parent who complained at her daughter's school, because they were reading Charlotte's Web.
Kukumber.
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It is clearly forbidden, stop trying to rationalize
Holy Quran (Yusuf Ali translation)
" FORBIDDEN to you (for food) are dead meat, blood, THE FLESH OF SWINE and that on which hath been invoked the name of other than God; that which hath been killed by strangling, or by a violent blow, or by a headlong fall, or by being gored to death; that which hath been (partly) eaten by a wild animal; unless ye are able to slaughter it (in due form); that which is sacrificed on stone (altars); (forbidden) also is the division (of meat) by raffling with arrows that is impiety"Now you do know what "forbidden" means and the "flesh of swine means", right? Put them together and you shall have no more confusion as to whether pork is forbidden or not.
Besides, I grew up on the stuff ( my dad is an atheist fundamentalist) and really it's not that good. It looks like human flesh and it stinks. Bacon might taste good, but anything with a lot of salt and fat tastes good, a rat would probably taste good if cooked right.
Like I said, call me crazy but to me even sex before marriage isn't as clearly prohibited as pork is.
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Peace
I am not sure who your post was directed at Sword , but if it was at me, I never said the consumption of pork was not forbidden.
However, if someone wants to know why it is forbidden, Pigs are dirty, they eat their own crap, gives you stomach worm, diseases, are not strong enough reasons. Isn't cow dung used to fertilize plants ? Everything on this earth recycles. Part of food becomes poop. Poop becomes a part of food. The food we eat becomes a corpse when we die, the dead corpse becomes components of food. And, don't most meats give diseases if undercooked?
God in his infinite wisdom prohibited the consumption of pork. I have always accepted it without reason, but if some one wants to know why, it is their own right to know and ask. I have a feeling it has to do with the resistance of the infection causing organisms as compared to those found on other meats, as well as the severity of the infection itself. But I would have to look it up thoroughly, and hazard that guess. And that's all it would be, an educated guess.
Also God only prohibited the consumption of pork. We have taken it many steps further and vilified the very being and existence of the pig. Hence my example of someone being outraged at a children's book where the main character is a pig.
Kukumber
