|
Nutrition In Classical Islamic Medical Sources
By Dr. Kenan Haspolat
Malnutrition is
not the result of only insufficient food. It can also
result from too much of the wrong food and from too much
of even the right food. Obesity caused by over-eating is
injurious to human health.
Obesity is harmful
to infants as well as adults. Obesity during infancy
may, in later life, cause such diseases as
arteriosclerosis and the other ailments which often
accompany it. Arteriosclerosis in adults is a factor in
high blood pressure or hypertension, and in certain
diseases of the heart eyes and kidneys. Obesity can also
lead to diabetes.
There is a good deal
in classical Islamic sources on the subjects of
over-eating and obesity. The Qur’anic verses. “Eat and
drink but not to excess (7 : 32), and Do not cast
yourselves into destruction by your own hands (2 :
195)”, may be mentioned (besides their other meanings)
as divine warnings against transgressing the limits in
eating and drinking and doing harm to ourselves because
of carelessness. Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn al Wafid said.
‘God put all medicine into half of one verse [of the
Qur’an] when He said: Eat and drink but not to excess.’
The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, also drew
attention to obesity and over-eating. For example, as
recorded by al-Haythami, on seeing a fat man, he said:
If you did not have a paunch, it would be better for
you. He also said: Overeating does not go with good
health. The criterion established by Islam, and
reiterated by the prophet, is: The middle way [avoiding
extremes] is the best in every affair.
Among other sayings
of the prophet which warn against the dangers of
overeating and obesity are:
a.) Avoid filling
the stomach with food and drink.
b.) Overeating
exhausts the body and causes illnesses.
c.) Follow a middle
way in eating and drinking as this improves the body.
d.) God does not
love fat bodies.
e.) The son of Adam
[i.e. man] fills no container worse than his stomach.
f.) Let him have
just a few mouthfuls to strengthen the limbs.
g.) One third of the
stomach is for food, one third for drink, and one third
for air.
The following saying
uttered in relation to the spiritual harm caused by
over-eating, can also e read in relation to heart
diseases arising from overeating: ‘Do not kill your
hearts by eating and drinking too much. For the heart is
like a sown field: over-irrigation causes the seed to
rot.
‘Ali, the fourth
Caliph, said: Having suet is a disease. He also said:
Fullness causes heart
spasms.’
‘Umar, the second
Caliph, said: Avoid getting a pot-belly, for it spoils
the body, causes diseases, and makes doing the prayer
tiring. And avoid all excess, for God hates a learned
man who is fat.
Harith ibn Khalada,
the physician of the Arabs, was once asked: What is the
best medicine?
He replied:
‘Necessity that is, hunger.’ When asked what the disease
was, he said: ‘The entry of food upon food.’
Ibn Sina, the
renowned Muslim physician and philosopher, said: ‘Never
have a meal until the one before it has been digested.’
He also advised against excessive salt and fatty meat.
His list of food for dieting mostly included vegetables.
The prescription is much the same today.
Contrary to some
popular superstitions, fat bodies are not healthy
babies. On the contrary, over-eating is also harmful for
children. Children fed on starchy foods without the
necessary amount of vitamin D are susceptible to rickets
(rachitism). Ibn Sina advised the same nine centuries
ago:
‘Avoid giving babies
too much food. Over-nutrition of babies causes their
urine to be light-colored.’
The fact that a baby
goes on suckling does not always mean that the baby is
hungry; sometimes suckling is just a reflex action.
Dark-colored urine in babies indicates under-nutrition;
while a light color is symptomatic of overnutrition.
Ibn Sina was of the
opinion that over-feeding provokes eclampsia
(convulsions) in babies. Anthor Muslim physician, Abu
Bakr al-Razi, also pointed to this link. He said that
some infantile convulsions can abate after proper
regular nutrition. Ibn Sina and al-Razi may have been
referring to the kind of eclampsia caused by rickets
emerging as result of obesity: in the syndromes
names after Frohlich and Martin-Albright obesity is
accompanied by eclampsia.
Ibn Khaldun, a
Muslim sociologist and historian famous for his
Muqaddima, also mentioned that over-eating causes many
diseases. He said: ‘Know that hunger is better for
health than eating too much.Even if we cannot remain
hungry, eating less is good. Eating less is better for
the development of body and mind.’
Other Muslim
physicians such as Haji Pasha and Hafiz Hasan Effendi
also wrote that giving babies too much milk was harmful
for their health. It is now a well-established fact that
feeding babies too much milk causes obesity.
Advice on
eating and drinking
There are many
sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and
blessing, on medicine. They encompass a great variety of
subjects including eating and drinking and the mention
of certain kinds of food particularly useful for health.
In later centuries Muslim scholars collected these
sayings, usually under the title of Tibb al-Nabawi. The
collection of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Jala al-Din al-Suyuti
and Abu Nu’aym are among the most famous. Jalal al-Din
al-Suyuti (d. 1505), one of the greatest scholars of the
Muslim Middle Ages, recommended eating cold foods in
summer and hot ones in winter. Hot food should be
preferred with cold, sweet with sour, fat with salt and
acid with fat. Variety of foods excites the
constitution; it is best to eat with relish and
enjoyment. Having the same food several times one after
the other and eating hurriedly causes loss of appetite
and laziness. Eating a second meal without fully
digesting the first is harmful. Al-Suyuti also wrote
that one should avoid food and drink that has been left
uncovered. The prophet, upon him be peace and blessings,
commanded this: Cover your containers and stop up the
mouths of your water bottles.
The prophet
disapproved eating food while it is too hot. He never
used to blow on his food or drink, or breathe into a
container. He also forbade eating lying down.
Taking a walk after
eating a meal or doing prayer is beneficial, specially
for the digestive process. The prophet said: Digest your
food with the Name of God and with doing a prayer. And
do no go to sleep immediately after eating as this will
make you constipated.
The hands should be
washed after as well as before eating. One whose stomach
is over-stuffed with food cannot think clearly or
wisely. The less a man eats, the less he drinks; and the
less he drinks, the less he sleeps; and the less he
sleeps, the better he will be in old age. The body of a
man over-filled food will be badly nourished, his-self
will be in a bad state, and his heart will grow hard.
Therefore, one should avoid too much food as it poisons
the heart and slows down the limbs of the body in
fulfilling one’s responsibilities toward God. One should
also avoid drinking very cold water, for it is harmful
to the respiratory system, specially after a hot meal,
or after sweet food, or after a hot bath.
The prophet, upon
him be peace and blessing, forbade drinking water at a
single gulp. Anas ibn Malik transmitted the tradition
that the prophet used to drink with three pauses and, at
each pause, remove his mouth from the container.
Healthy Exercise
Moderate exercise is
a most effective means of preserving good health. It
warms the organs, helps dissolution of waste products,
and makes the body light and active. The best time for
exercise which does not over-tire the body or make it
red. When sweating begins, exercise should be stopped.
The type of exercise which increases sweating is not
‘moderate’ but ‘heavy.’
The body’s organs
are strengthened and made more vigorous by regular
exercise. The same applies to the inner faculties. One
who wishes, for example, to improve his memory will
improve it by memorizing. There is a specific exercise
proper to every organ. The prophet, upon him be peace
and blessing, advised a form of exercise which is good
for our bodies and our hearts when he said: Travel, for
you will grow healthy. He also said: Fasting brings
health.
Sleep
According to al-Suyuti,
the best time to go to sleep is after food has been
digested.
Over-sleeping is bad
for health; and sleeping face down is forbidden.
Sleeping during the hour following sunrise and before
sunset is bad for one: it may lead to ailments and
indolence. However, a short sleep in the middle of the
day is useful for the health and helps one to rise for
prayer during the night. The prophet, upon him be peace
and blessing, used to sleep on his right side, facing
the qible (the Ka’ba in Makkah). And it is better to go
to sleep in a state of wudu.
References:
1. the narrations
can be found in Tanbih al-Ghafilin by Abu’l Leys al-Samarkandi,
(Turkish translation), p. 799, and, Ihya Ulum al-Din by
Imam Ghazali (Turkish trans.) vol. 3, p. 186. 2.
Al-Ghazali, ibid, 3.186. 3. Celal Yildirim, Asrin
Kuran Tefsiri, Izmir, 1987, 1.478.
4. Imam Dhahabi,
Sifa Demetleri, Istanbul, p. 21.
5. I. Haldun,
Muqaddima (Turkish trans.), Ank. 1977, 1.232. |
