Food and Drink

 With Ramadan just past, we can reflect on some of the lessons and benefits of fasting. Food, drink and its avoidance are central to fasting. It’s a great blessing that each day of Ramadan, we can look forward to the breaking of the fast, and our concerns are of the nature of, “What should I have?” It’s not, “Will I have food or water?” Thank God we can get as much water and food as we need. The test for us is to eat and drink in moderation. And thank You God for all the variety of foods and delicious provisions. 

[51:56] I did not create the jinns and the humans except to worship Me alone. [51:57] I need no provisions from them, nor do I need them to feed Me. [51:58] GOD is the Provider, the Possessor of all power, the Supreme. 

Praise God for providing for us so we can worship Him and fulfill our practices. I’m reminded of Abraham’s prayer: [14:37] “Our Lord, I have settled part of my family in this plantless valley, at Your Sacred House. Our Lord, they are to observe the Contact Prayers (Salat), so let throngs of people converge upon them, and provide for them all kinds of fruits, that they may be appreciative.

Abraham saw food and fruits as a means to allow his family to observe Salat and be appreciative. Food is not the end goal, but a means to the goal of worshiping God alone. And for us, thank God, this prayer is already answered. We can go to any grocery store and buy all kinds of fruit. Perhaps our test is to be appreciative and charitable since we already have enough, thank God. 

[16:114] Therefore, you shall eat from GOD’s provisions everything that is lawful and good, and be appreciative of GOD’s blessings, if you do worship Him alone. 

Zakat Must Be Given “On The Day Of Harvest”* 

[6:141] He is the One who established gardens, trellised and untrellised, and palm trees, and crops with different tastes, and olives, and pomegranate ―fruits that are similar, yet dissimilar. Eat from their fruits, and give the due alms on the day of harvest,* and do not waste anything. He does not love the wasters. 

*6:141 Zakat charity is so important, the Most Merciful has restricted His mercy to those who give it (7:156).

 

Yet, the corrupted Muslims have lost this most important commandment; they give Zakat only once a year. We see here that Zakat must be given away “On the day we receive income.” The proportion that came to us through Abraham is 2.5% of our net income. 

[15:19–23] As for the earth, we constructed it, and placed on it stabilizers (mountains), and we grew on it a perfect balance of everything. We made it habitable for you,* and for creatures you do not provide for. There is nothing that we do not own infinite amounts thereof. But we send it down in precise measure. And we send the winds as pollinators, and cause water to come down from the sky for you to drink. Otherwise, you could not keep it palatable. It is we who control life and death, and we are the ultimate inheritors. 

*15:20 When we send astronauts into space, we provide them with precisely measured quantities of food, water, and oxygen. God created the spaceship Earth with billions of astronauts who work and reproduce; He supplied them with a self-supporting system that generates oxygen, fresh water, and a great variety of delicious foods and drinks.

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