SELECTIONS FROM THE REVITALISATION OF THE SCIENCES OF RELIGION Al-Ghazali’s Ihya’ Ulum al-Din Visitation Habits The First Book The Ethics of Eating All Praise to be Allah, who created the Universe, embellished its form and order, He created the Heavens and the Earth, and He sent down water, then brought forth brought from it grain and plants, and determined the sustenance and bounty, he made food a source of energy for the animals and guided mankind to the way of righteous deeds and piety, and made the good food lawful for them, praise and peace be upon Muhammad, to whom He sent distinguished miracles, and upon his family and his Companions. To those who possess minds that they should make their hope of their encounter with Allah, the High, the Exalted, in the Abode of the Reward, there is no way for them to achieve their aim except in knowledge and righteous deeds, and that cannot be achieved without a healthy body. A healthy body can only be achieved if healthy food is taken in due proportion at the due time. With regard to this point one of the righteous predecessors has said: ‘Eating is of the religion, the Lord of the Worlds has instructed us regarding it, as He said: “…Eat of that which is good and do good deeds …”’ (Koran Ch. 23 verse 51). So whoever eats to enable himself to advance in knowledge and to work and to enable himself to carry out his religious duties, should not ignore his health nor should he eat excessively, as a animal grazes incessantly in the fields. The one who eats merely as the means of fulfilling his religious duties should behave in a way, which reflects the light of the religion on himself. Religious manners and ordinances serve to give the servant the power to control his desire for eating and enable him to distance himself from sins. The Prophet, may Allah praise and venerate him, said: “Indeed a man will be rewarded even for the piece of bread he puts in his own mouth or that with which he feeds his wife.” This is only if he does this observing religious manners and duties. We here will guide to the employment of religious duties in eating: its obligations, its ordinances, its manners and its merit, in four chapters and one additional chapter. The First Chapter: Regarding what is necessary to be observed while eating even if one is eating alone. The Second Chapter: Regarding additional manners to be observed when eating in a gathering. The Third Chapter: Regarding what you present of food to guests. The Fourth Chapter: Regarding invitations and hospitality and social occasions. Chapter One The Requisites of Eating Alone In three Parts: The part before eating, the part during eating, and the part after eating The First part On the manners in advance of eating; these are seven The first: The food must be lawful and good and gained in a lawful way, and not gained through illegal, irreligious or unlawful ways. Allah, the High, the Exalted has commanded us to eat the good things, which are lawful, and He has forbidden us from eating unlawful things; this is as a means of magnifying His blessings of the lawful and warning of the harm of the unlawful. He, the High, the Exalted said: “Believers, do not consume your wealth among yourselves in falsehood, except there be trading by your mutual agreement.…”(Koran Ch. 4 verse 29) The second: The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “The ablution before eating dispels poverty and the ablution after eating purifies you from the minor sins.” This is because the hand, which is used in work must be washed to make it clean for eating in the same way as one purifies oneself before prayer, as eating is a means of fulfilling the religious duties. The third: The food should be placed on a tray upon the floor, this is the way that the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, used to eat his food. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, used to bring his food and put it on the floor as this was more modest and humble. It should be remembered that the food is a means for one to journey through life, which should remind one that he is on a journey traveling towards the Hereafter, and that the traveling to the Hereafter has needs: “…Provide well for yourselves, the best provision is piety.and take provision for the journey, but the best provision is piety…”(Koran Ch. 2 verse 197). The fourth: When being seated around the food one should develop the habit of sitting in a good manner. While he sat eating, the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, frequently joined his knees and feet just as one who prays, except that one knee was over the other knee and one foot over the other, and said: “I am only a servant; I eat and sit as he does.” Reclining while drinking is not good for the stomach and it is disliked to eat while laying on one’s side or reclining. The fifth: The intention of eating should be to take provision for the purpose of fulfilling the religious duties, not just for enjoying the food for its own sake. Ibrahim ibn Sheban said: “For eighty years I have not eaten anything for the sake of my desire.” The sixth: One should be content with whatever is available. One should not indulge in luxury food and one should not be excessive, one should not disdain from eating bread alone, and not seek to enrich the bread with some extra food or condiment. We have been commanded to respect the bread. Anything, which keeps you alive and enables you to fulfill your religious duties is much blessed and we should not belittle it. If you have bread in your hand to eat and the call to prayer is given do not attend the prayer until you eat the bread if there is time. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “If the call for evening prayer is given while the supper is laid down, start your supper.” The seventh: Endeavor to invite people to food even if they are from your wives and your children. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “Gather around your food, Allah will bless it for you.” Anas said: “The Messenger of Allah, praise and peace be upon him, never ate alone.” The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “The best food is the food upon, which there is multiplicity of hands (i.e. partaking food with other people).” The Second Part Manners During Eating When the table is set it should be said: “In the Name of Allah, render the food favorable and praiseworthy and cause it to have the favor of Paradise.” And if it is also said with every bite: ‘In the Name of Allah,’ it is better still, so that greed does not keep one away from the remembrance of Allah. One should not eat very hot food, in regard to this the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “It is without blessing; indeed Allah did not feed us fire, therefore cool it.” One should eat whatever is within reach using the right hand and begin and end with salt. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “Eat from what is near you.” One should take small bites and chew it well. One should not criticize the food, The Prophet never found fault with food. If he was pleased with it, he ate it, if he dislike it, he neglected it; if he discarded it, he did not render it hateful to another person. He disliked the lizard and the spleen but did not declare them forbidden. One should never turn a dish around so as to access the food on the other side, nor stretch your arm so to reach the food in the middle. The bread should be eaten from the outside edge inwards, not broken in two to reach the middle first. When the outside is finished then the middle can be broken and eaten. Bread should not be cut by a knife. Nor should the cooked meat be cut by a knife. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, forbade the cutting of meat and bread by knives and said: “Bit it with your teeth.’ When the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, ate meat, he did not lean over it. Instead he lifted the meat to his mouth and then bit into it with his front teeth. One should not put a loaf of bread into the soup or stew, except the piece, which you will eat. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “Honor the bread, Allah, the High, the Exalted has sent it from the Blessings of Heaven.” One should not wipe his hands with the bread, nor put pieces of rejected food back into the tray, but one should collect the scraps into one place so that no one would mistakenly eat them. One should not drink while eating unless a piece of food becomes stuck in the throat as it is not medically beneficial to drink while eating. As for drinking, the manner for it is to take the cup and say: ‘In the Name of Allah,” and one should suck the water and not gulp it. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “Sip the water and do not gulp it, indeed the pain of the liver is caused by gulping.’ One should not drink standing or reclining. One should watch the bottom of the cup in case it drips on him, and should look into the cup before drinking from it, and one should not breathe into the cup nor expel wind into it, but should remove it from his mouth saying “All Praise to Allah,” and when returning it to his mouth he should say “In the Name of Allah.” The cup should be passed around from the right. The Third Part Manners after Eating One should stop eating before feeling satiated by the food, then one should lick the fingers and then wipe them with a cloth, then wash them, one should pick up the crumbs. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “Whoever eats what has fallen from the tray lives in abundance and Allah saves his children from any harm.” One should clean the teeth with toothpicks but not swallow what the toothpick removes, except what is removed by his tongue. But as for what one removes with the toothpick, it should be thrown away and one should wash his mouth after using the toothpick. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, used to wipe clean his fingers saying: “The last portion of food is very much blessed.” Moreover he licked his fingers until they became red. He did not wipe his hand with a towel until he had licked his fingers one by one, saying that he did not know in, which morsel of food was the blessing. When he finished he said: “Praise be to Allah! Allah, You are worthy to be praised. You have fed, sated, given drink, and quenched thirst; praise belongs to You, who cannot be denied, who is eternally present, and who is indispensable.” One should show thanks to Allah, the Almighty with his heart for what he has been fed and see that the food is a blessing from Allah. Allah, the High, the Exalted said: “Eat from the good of what has been bestowed on you and give thanks to Allah.” Whenever one eats lawfully one should say; “Praise be to Allah! Allah, You are worthy to be praised. You have fed, sated, given drink, and quenched thirst; praise belongs to You, who cannot be denied, who is eternally present, and who is indispensable.” And if one eats something one is doubtful of one should say: “All Praise to Allah in any event. Please Allah do not make the food a strength for us to disobey You.” After the food one should read the chapter ‘The Sincerity of Faith,’ and the chapter ‘The Koraysh.’ And one should not leave the tray before it has been removed, if one eats the food of another one should pray for him and say: “Please Allah increase him in good and bless for him what You have bestowed upon him, and ease to him the doing of good, and make him content with what You have granted him, and make him and us grateful to You.” If someone breaks his fast with other people, he should say: “May your house always be open for the fasting people, and your food always be fed to the righteous, and the angels bless you always.” It is preferable to say after the food: “All Praise be to Allah, the One who has fed us and given us drink, He has sufficed us and sheltered us, He is our Lord and our Guardian, You are the One who suffices everything. You have provided us with food lest we should go hungry, and with security lest we should live in fear. All Praise to You, You have given shelter to the orphans, and You have guided the misguided, You have enriched the poor, All Praise is always due to You. You alone do we worship, and You alone do we turn to for help, we seek refuge in You from committing any sin.” Chapter Two Additional manners to be observed when eating in a gathering; these are seven: stopped here The First: One should not start the meal while in his presence there are those more deserving, such as elders and those of higher station, except to show them the way, then one should not keep them waiting especially if they are all gathered and ready to eat. The Second: They should not keep silent while eating as this is the habit of the non Arabs, but they should speak in a well mannered way about the behavior of the righteous people regarding food. The Third: To be considerate to your companions regarding the tray in not taking more than the others, as this is unlawful, unless his companions are pleased to let him do that. The food is to be shared between all. It is prohibited to swear an oath to force someone to eat. Al-Hasan ibn Ali (may Allah be pleased with them) said: “The food is lesser than to swear upon it.” The Fourth: They should not put their companions in a situation to ask him to eat. Some have said: “The best of those who eat are the ones who do not force their companions to watch him eating, and then burden them by asking them to eat.” I.e. This means when the food is served one should eat without expecting repeated invitations. The Fifth: They should wash their hands and if one is eating alone, one may spit out the water, but if there are people eating together one should not do that. The Sixth: They should not stare at one another while eating, otherwise they will feel shy, and one should direct one’s gaze away, and should not stop eating before one’s guests, so that they would not be shy to continue. One should continue taking little by little until the guests have had enough. The Seventh: One should not do anything, which the others will be offended by, or regard as dirty, such as flicking one’s hands over the food, or putting his face into the dish. One should not dip a large soft piece of bread into the dish, and the piece, which he cuts with his teeth should not be dipped into the dish. One should not speak of dirty things when eating. Chapter Three The Manner of Presenting Food to Guests There is great merit in presenting food to guests. Ghaffar ibn Muhammad (may Allah be pleased with them) said: “When you sit at the tray with guests, prolong the sitting, it is an hour, which will not be counted from your age.” And al-Hasan (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “Whatever a man spends on himself and his parents and other than them, will be charged for it, except what he spends on his guests in food, as Allah declines to ask him about it.” From what was narrated regarding presenting food, the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “The angels seek praise continuously for any of you as long as his tray of food remains before him until it is lifted away.” Ali, - may Allah be pleased with him - said: “For myself to gather my brethren for a meal is more preferable to me than the setting free of a slave.” Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them) used to say: “From the generosity of the person is that he has good provisions when he journeys and presents them to his companions. As for the manner: On entering and on presenting food. It is not from the Sunnah to arrive unexpectedly and uninvited at a mealtime and to sit in wait for a meal. We have been forbidden to do this. Allah, the High, the Exalted, said: “Do not enter the house of the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, unless you have been invited for a meal, and do linger awaiting for a meal to be cook…” This means do not arrive and wait for food to be cooked. It was narrated that whoever walks to a meal to, which he was not invited, he walks in wickedness and has eaten unlawfully. But as for the manner of presenting food, one should not be excessive, if one does not have anything to present and he does not have the means, he should not borrow for that, as this will be a burden on him. And if he has something, which he needs for his food, and he was not pleased to give it, then he should not present it. A person entered upon an ascetic while he was eating, so he said: “If I did not borrow the price of it I would have fed it to you.” Al-Fadil used to say: “The people should boycott those who pose only for show, any of them invites his brother then he poses, so you should boycott him and never go back to him.” And of the burdens is that person presents all that he has, so he has been unfair to his children and hurt their hearts. Salman said: “The Messenger of Allah, praise and peace be upon him, has commanded us that we should not pose to our guests with what we do not have, and we should present to him what we have.” The second manner: is for the visitor, he should not suggest or insist on a particular things as this may cause difficulty to his host. If his brother gave him the choice between two kinds of food, then let him choose the least one. This is the Sunnah. It was narrated that whenever The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, was given the choice between two things he chose the least. The third manner: the host should make his guest feel welcome and seek from him a suggestion, whenever he finds himself happy or pleased to do w hat is suggested, this is better and there is a reward and great merit in it. The fourth manner: The host should not say to his guest, ‘Would you like to eat?’ But he should present the food if it is ready. Al Thawri said: “If a brother visits you do not say to him: “Will you eat?” or “Shall I present to you food?” But he should present the food, if he eats, it is well, if not, take it away.” Chapter Four On the Manners of Hospitality The manners of hospitality are six: Firstly the invitation, then the response, then the arrival, then presenting the food, then eating and finally the departure. The Invitation: The host should intend to invite only pious people, not the wicked or rebellious. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “The righteous should eat your food.” In his praise to some of those who had invited him, and he meant the poor people and not the rich in particular. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, also said: “The worst food is the food of invitations to, which only the rich people have been invited to the exclusion of the poor.” And one should not ignore his relatives in his hospitality, as ignoring them is equal to severing the womb relations. Also one should observe an equal preference between one’s friends and acquaintances, because if one is preferred over the other, the other may be offended. One should not intend by means of his invitation it to be merely a means of posing, but it is better to gain the hearts one one’s brethren. One should not invite the one who you know will find it difficult to attend, and if he attends he may be embarrassed by the presence of the others. The Response has five manners: The First: one should not prefer to respond to the rich in preference to the poor, this is a form of pride from, which we are forbidden. The Second: One should not decline an invitation merely on the grounds that the distance will be far for you, also one should not decline because the host is poor or not a notable person, but if it is any distance you can usually bear, you should not decline the invitation. It was said in the Torah or some other books: Walk for a mile to visit a sick person, walk two miles at a funeral, walk three miles in response to an invitation, walk four miles to visit a brother in faith. The Third: One should not decline just because he is fasting, but he should attend, and if he feels that his brother is pleased to give him breakfast, he should have breakfast there and take into account in his intention that his breakfast is to please his brother. This should be for when one is fasting voluntarily. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said to the one who declines his brother’s invitation on the excuse of fasting: “Your brother has bothered himself for you, then you come and tell him ‘I am fasting.’” The Fourth: One should decline an invitation if one is doubtful as to the goodness of the food, or the tray, which is offered is not lawful, or if the place where the tray is set is furnished with velvet, or if the tray and plates are from silver, or a drawing of an animal was on the roof or a wall, or if one hears music or dance, or there is playing of musical instruments or jesting or playing games, or listening to backbiting or slander, or if there is forgery, deception or lies involved. All such things should deter you from responding and make such invitations forbidden. Also if the host is an oppressor or inventor or wicked or evil or a boaster who is looking to pride himself over the people one should not accept. The Fifth: One should not intend by responding that you will attend only to enjoy the food, as this will be a striving for worldly pleasure, but one should have a good intention so that his response will be a striving for the Hereafter. The manner of attendance is that you enter the house and you should not go to sit in the center of the house, so that you have the best place, but you should be more humble, and do not arrive too late so that they would be troubled in waiting for you nor arrive before they are ready to receive. One should not crowd yourself upon other people already sitting, but if the host has directed you to sit somewhere you should accede, as he may have organized each one to a certain place, as if you disagree with him you may cause confusion. You should not face the door of the women’s quarters, and you should not look inquisitively at the place from, which the food is served, as this will indicate your greed. And if the guest enters with the intention of staying overnight, his host, upon his arrive, should indicate to him the direction of the Qibla, the bathroom and the place where he may wash to pray. But as to presenting the food there are five manners: The first is to speed the food, as this is a way of honoring the guest. If the majority of the guests have arrived with the exception of one or two, and they are later than the set time, the right of those who are present is greater in hurrying with the food, than the right of those who are late, except when the one who is late is poor and his feelings would be hurt, then it is better to delay. The second is to arrange the food, one should begin with the fruit, if there is any, this is more healthy for the digestion as it should reach the stomach before anything else. There is indication in the Koran regarding the presentation of the fruit first, as Allah, the Almighty said: “with fruits of their own choice,” (Koran Ch. 56 verse 20) Then said: “and any flesh of fowl that they desire.” (Koran Ch. 56 verse 21). The best to be presented after the fruit is the meat and the breaded soup. The third to be presented should be the various vegetable dishes, of them the best should be presented first, so that those who wish to eat of it can take their fill. The indulgent people usually present the heaviest dish first, then they serve the nicest in order to make the people eat too much. This is the opposite of the Sunnah, as it is a guile to make the people over indulge. It was a tradition of the people before to present all the dishes at the same time on the tray, so that each one can eat what he wishes. And even if the host had only one kind he would put it mentioning that is all he has so that they do not expect more. It was narrated that one of the pious people used to make a list of the food he had prepared and give each guest one so that they would know. The fourth is that one should not rush to clear the tray away before the guests have had enough, in case one of them wants some more of a particular dish. If it is taken away the guest may be disappointed. It was related that Al Satory, who was a lighthearted Sufi, once attending an invitation for a meal from a worldly person, a baby lamb was presented to them, the host was a miser who when he saw the guests tearing the lamb pieces he got enraged and said ‘O (servant) boy, lift the tray away and take it inside to the children.’ As the tray was being carried inside the house Al Satory got up and ran behind it, it was said to him where are you going? He said, ‘to eat with the children.’ The host felt embarrassed and ordered the tray to return to the guests. For this reason the host should not finish eating before his guests have finished, and he should be last to finish otherwise his gusts will be shy to continue. The fifth one should present sufficient food as if there is insufficient the hospitality will be lacking, on the other hand if an excessive amount is presented then the host will appear showy. As to the departure from the invitation there are three manners to be observed. First the host must accompany his visitor to the door as it is Sunnah. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “It is from the Sunnah of the visitor that he should be accompanied to the door of the house.” Second the visitor should leave while he has a good feeling inside him even if he felt the hospitality had been lacking, as this is a mark of good character and humility. Third the visitor should not leave the house except with the approval of his host, he should have regard for his hosts during his stay. If he was a guest he should not stay more than three days as he may be a burden on his host if he stays longer. The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “The hospitality is three days, anything more than that is charity.” If the host insist on the guest to stay longer and he feels he is sincere, then he can stay.