GREED FOR FOOD SEXUAL PASSION

Greed for food is a destructive evil. Owing to this greed, Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise. They were prohibited to eat the fruits of a certain tree but they ate them prompted by a strong greed and as such evil deeds were disclosed to the. In fact, belly is the container of greed and the bleeding ground of diseases and disasters. In case of satisfaction of belly, sexual passion rises high, and it encourages companionship with women. Desire for name and fame grows from greed. Then come the evil attributes of hatred, clash of interests, pride, self-conceit etc. These can be removed by hunger.

MERITS OF HUNGER: The Prophet said: Fight your passion with hunger and thirst. Its merits are equal to those gained by Jihad in the way of God. Nothing is dearer to God then hunger and thirst. The Prophet said: No angel from heaven comes to one who eats belly-full. The Prophet was once asked: Who is best? He replied: One who eats little, laughs little and remains satisfied with cloth necessary to cover his private parts. He said: Put on old cloth, fill up half of your belly with food and drink as it is a portion of prophethood. The Prophet said: Fikr (meditation about God's creation) is half of divine service but little food is full divine service. He said: Hunger is chief of all actions and Sufi dress curbs passion. He said: He who among you bears hunger for a long time and ponders about God will be best in rank among you on the resurrection day. He who sleeps long, eats much and drinks much will be the greatest object of the wrath of God.

The Prophet used to remain hungry without want. In other words, be kept himself hungry willingly. The Prophet said: God glorifies before His angels about one who eats little and drinks little in the world and says: 0 angels, look to My servant, I am trying him in the world by food and drink. He gave them up with patience. 0 angels, bear witness, I will raise him up to paradise in proportion to the less number of morsels he eats. The Prophet said: Don't make your heart dead by taking excessive food and drink as the heart is like a field of crops. When there is excessive water in a field, crops are damaged. He said: The son of Adam 3:69does not fill up anything more obnoxious than excessive food to keep his backbone erect is sufficient for him. If he is not able to do it, then one-third of his belly is for food, one third for drink and one-third for breathing.

SIGNS OF ABDAL: The Prophet said: Those who keep patience in hunger, thirst and calamities for long will stay on the Resurrection Day near the Almighty God. They are God-fearing hones men without shoes. They car not be recognised on sight. If they remain absent, they, are not searched. The undeveloped paces know them and the angels of heaven keep them encircled. They are the best of the people in the earth and best in divine service. The. people spread out their soft beds, but they use their heads and knees as beds. The people destroy the character and conduct of the Prophet but they preserve them. The world in which they roam weeps for them if they are lost. If none of them lives in a country, God is displeased with it. They are not greedy for the world just as a dog is greedy over corpse. The live by eating leaves and vegetables, put on torn rags and are disheveled in hairs and laden with dust. The people think that they are diseased, but in fact they are not so. Some think that they have lost intellect, but it is not so. Their attention is towards the actions of God who removed the attachment of the world from them. They wander among the worldly men as men without interest, but there is endless honour for them in the next world.

0 Osamah, when you see them anywhere, know that for the inhabitants of the place, they are safeguards and God will not punish the people among whom they live. The world is happy for them and the Almighty is pleased with them. Take them as brethren for yourselves. perchance you may get salvation on that' account. If you can die when your belly remains hungry and your spleen thirsty, it will be better because you will have an honourable place on that account and the angels will be happy at the advent of your soul. God also will shower His blessings on you.

The Prophet said: Put on Sufi dress and fill up half of your belly, you will then enter paradise. Jesus Christ said: 0 my disciples, Keep your belly hungry, keep your body without cloth, God will then appear in your heart. There is written in the Torah: God is displeased with a stout and strong learned man as it is a sign of carelessness and overeating. The Prophet said: The devil 3:70runs through a man like the circulation of blood. Make it narrow by hunger and thirst. He also said: If anybody eats to his heart's content, he is attacked with leprosy. He also said: A believer eats filling up one gut, but a hypocrite eats filling up seven gut's. In other words, a hypocrite eats seven times more than a believer or the passion and greed of a hypocrite are seven times greater than those of a believer. Here gut means greed. He also said: Knock at the door of paradise, it will be opened for you. When questioned a out knocking, he said: By hunger and thirst.

Once Abu Juhafa was belching in an assembly of the Prophet who said to him: Lessen your belching. He who eats to his heart's content in this world will suffer much owing to hunger on the day of resurrection. Hazrat Ayesh reported: The Prophet never ate to his heart's content. Sometimes I wept seeing the pangs off his hunger. Then I passed my hand over his belly and said: My life be sacrificed to thee. What is the fault in eating so much as can keep your strength 'and appease your hunger? He said: 0 Ayesha, my predecessor Prophets suffered more than this and kept patience. They adopted this condition and went to their Lord. Their honour is unlimited and their rewards are profuse. So I fear if I greed for pleasure of living, my condition may be less than theirs tomorrow. So it is better to me to bear patience to- day in troubles than that my fortune maybe less to-morrow. Nothing is dearer to me than to live together with my brethren and companions with dignity. Hazrat Ayesha said: After this talk, the Prophet did not live longer than seven days.

Hazrat Anas reported: Once Hazrat Fatema came with apiece of bread to the Prophet who said to her: What is of this bread. The Prophet said: To-day this food will enter the belly of your father after three days. Hazrat Anas reported that the family members of the Prophet did not eat the bread of wheat consequitively for three days till the Prophet expired. The Prophet said: Those who remain hungy in this world will eat their h\heart's content in the next world. He who eats to his full belly is an object of greedy for it will have rank in Paradise.

Wise sayings. Hazrat Omar said: Have a sharp look to your belly as it becomes heavy in life and destroyed after death. These age Shaqiq Balakhi said: Divine service is a profession, its shop is solitude and its weapon is hunger. The wise Luqman advised his son: 0 dear son, when you eat your belly full, good then falls 3:71asleep, wisdom becomes inactive, and the organs take leisure.

Hazrat Fazil-b-Iayaz addressed himself thus: What thing do you fear? Why do you fear hunger? The Prophet and his companions used to remain hunger. Why do you neglect it? The sage Khamash used to say: 0 my Lord, you keep me without food and cloth and allow me to sit lose to Thee in darkness without light.

Tell, my Lord, on account of which virrue I have achieved this luck. The sage Majak-b-Dinar said: 0 my Lod, I asked Muhammad-b-Waseq: 0 Abu Abdullah, he who has got food proportionate to his wants and does not live depending on others is happy. He said to me: 0 Abu Ihya; he is happy who is pleased with God remaining hungry in the morning and evening. The sage Ihya-b-Ma'az said: Hunger of the hopeful is a cause of wakefulness, hunger of the patient is the control of passion and the hunger of the ascetics is wisdom.

There is in the Torah: Fear God when you eat to your belly full and remember hunger. The sage Abu Solainman Darani said: I like to eat one morsel less than to be attentive in prayer during the whole night up to morning. He also said: Hunger is one of the treasure s of God. He gives it to one whom He loves. The sage Sahal Tastari used not to take meal consequitively for 25 days at a time. One dirham was sufficient for his meal throughout the year. He used to consider the rank of hunger with honour and made exaggeration. Even he said: The reward which is gained by giving up surplus food in following the practice of the Prophet will not be gained by other actins on the resurrection day. He also said: There is nothing more profitable than hunger. He also said: I don't know of a more harmful thing for a man seeking the next world than eating with heart's content. He also said: Knowledge lies in hunger and sin and ignorance lie in over eating. He said: No man does better divine service than to act in opposition to his passion after giving up lawful things.

The Prophet said: One third of the belly is for food. He who eats more than that spools his good deeds. Being asked about additional merits he said: He will not get additional merits till hunger becomes dearer to him than over eating and till he prays at night remaining hungry. When he does this, he will be entitled to get additional rewards. He also said: An Abdal (ascetic) is not included in the class of Abdals till he does not love to remain hungry without sleep and to remain silent. He said: Of all the 3:72virtuous deeds which descended from heaven to earth, the greatest is hunger. Of all the evils which have descended from heaven to eath, the worst is eating with heart's content. He said: The machinations of the devil go away from one who remains hungry. He said: God advances to a man who is in hunger, diseases, dangers and calamities. God releases some men from these things at His sweet will. He said: Know that a man of the present age will not get salvation till he destroys his passion and sleeps by hunger, and does hard labour. He said: There is no such man in the world who can save himself from sin by drinking to his heart's content even though he expresses grtefulness to God. If it is so in case of water drinking, how will it be in case of eating with full satisfaction?

Some wise man was asked: How can I change my passion? He said: Change your passion with hunger, thirst, taking up humility, by giving up name and fame, making them lower by placing them under the feet off those who seek the next world and opposing constantly your passions. The sage Abdul Wahed said: The merciful loves a hungry man. A man can walk upon water by virtue of hunger and God gives him power for this. The sage Abu Bakr Mujni said: God loves three men-(1) one who sleeps little, (2) one who eats little, and (3) one who takes little rest.

Jesus christ once kept fast consequitively for two months and began to converse secretly with his Lord. When he remembered to take his meal, the secret conversation stopped and he found his meal placed before him. He began to weep when his secret conversation was suddenly closed. It is said that Moses gained the power of secretly talking with God when he was in fast of consequitive forty days.

BENEFITS OF HUNGER AND HARMS OF OVER-EATING

The Holy Prophet said: 'Fight your passion with hunger and thirst.' You may ask wherefrom this good of hunger comes and what is its cause though it gives trouble to belly. This statement is like the word of a man who thinks, after getting the benefit of a bitter and distasteful medicine that a bitter medicine gives benefit. Benefit arises not from bitterness of the medicine. A physician knows the effect of such a medicine. Similarly the 3:73sages and saints among the learned understand the benefit s of hunger. He who believes the truth of remaining hungry gets the benefit. God says: God will raise those in ranks who believe among you and those who have been given knowledge. The following ten benefits are obtained from hunger.

(1) Hunger makes the heart pure, conduct fresh and sight sharp. On the other hand, over-eating makes one lazy, heart blind and incurs heat in brain like intoxication, even it attacks the men of thoughts. As a result, the power of thoughts goes away. When a boy eats much, his power of memory becomes dull and he becomes a fool. The sage Abu Solaiman Darabi said: Remain hungry as it curtails passion, makes the heart soft and it gives divine knowledge therein. The Prophet said: Make the heart alive by little laugh, little food and make it pure by hunger. It will become then pure and clean. He said: Hunger is like lightning, over-eating is like cloud and wisdom is like the shower of rain. The Prophet said: Whose eats to his heart's content and sleeps much, his heart becomes hard. Then he said:lThere is Zakat of everything and the Zakat of body is hunger. The Prophet said: The thinking power of a man increases who keeps his belly hungry and his heart becomes sharp and strong. The sage Shibli said: I saw on the very day I remained hungry for pleasure of God that the door of my heart has been opened towards wisdom and knowledge in such a way which I did not see before. It is not a secret thing that the ultimate object of divine worship is to acquire such thinking power which takes to divine knowledge and true knowledge of everything. Eating with satisfaction is an obstacle to that object and hunger opens its door.

Divine knowledge is a door to paradise. So it should be unlocked by hunger. For this reason, Luqman advised his son: 0 darling, when you fill up the belly with food, thinking power falls asleep, wisdom becomes idle and the bodily organs abstain from divine service. Hazrat Abu Yezid Bostami said: Hunger is like a cloud. When a men feels hungry, heart then showers rain of wisdom. He said: Hunger is the light of wisdom and eating with satisfaction keeps God at a distance. Love for the poor and nearing them bring God near. Don't eat to your heart's content, it will extinguish the light of wisdom from your heart Hurs wander about a man who passes night with little food up to morning.

3:74(2) Hunger makes the heart soft and pure and therewith the sweet taste of Zikr and Monazat is felt. How many a men of Zikr makes Zikr by tongue without the attention of mind,-so that the heart does not find taste therein as its effect does not fall in soul. it's taste is found in hunger. The sage Abu Solaiman Darani said: When my back becomes attached to my belly, I get taste in divine service. The saint Junaid said: The hope of one who wants taste in Monazat by placing the dish of food between him and his breast will not meet with success. He also said: When the belly becomes hungry and thirsty, the heart becomes soft and clean. When it becomes satisfied with food, it becomes blind and hard. When the heart finds taste in Monazat or invocation, it becomes easy to think about God and divine knowledge increases.

(3) Another benefit of hunger is the breaking of heart which produces modesty. Pride and enjoyments are removed by hunger. A man does not understand the power and glory of God till he does not feel absolutely helpless and sees darkness all around being unable to gather food and drink and till he realises power and might of God and becomes modest and submissive to Him. When all the treasures of the world were presented to the Prophet, he rejected them all and said: Rather I prefer to remain hungry one day and take food the next day. On the day I remain hungry, I shall be humble with patience and on the day I take food, I shall be grateful. In short, belly and sexual passion are the doors of Hell and their root is eating with satisfaction. Humility and break of heart are the doors of Paradise and their root is hunger. He who closes up the door of Hell opens then the door of Paradise as these doors are facing the east and the west. If one comes near a door, he goes distant from another.

(4) Another benefit of hunger is not to be forgetful of God's punishment. In case of satisfied eating, one forgets the pangs of the hunger. Once Joseph was asked: Why do you suffer from hunger though there are the treasures of the kingdom in your hand? He replied: In case of eating with satisfaction, I fear I may forget the sufferings of the hungry and the poor.

(5). Another benefit of hunger is that the propensity of committing sin is brought under control. Hunger arrests the greed for committing sins and controls the propensities of evils. The root of all sins is greed and physical strength and the root of 3:75these two is satisfied eating. So little quantity of food weakens these things. To acquire power to control passion is the root of all fortunes and to submit to passion is the root of all misfortunes. The turbulent animals can be brought under control by keeping them hungry. Similarly the unruly passions can be brought under control by hunger. A certain sage was asked: you have grown old. Why don't you take care of your body? Your body is getting black. He said: The body runs for enjoyments and wishes evils. I fear it may throw me in to a deep ditch. I like more to give it trouble than that it should throw me into sins.

The saint Jun Nun Misri said: Whenever I ate to my heart's content, thought of sin arose in my mind. Hazrat Ayesha said: After the demise of the Prophet, the first innovation that has come into being is eating with satisfaction. Hunger is not only useful to suppress passion, but it can be called the touch stone of all useful things. For this reason, a certain great man said: Of all the treasures of God, hunger is a valuable jewel. The lowest danger that can be averted by hunger is sexual passion, evil passion and passion of talk. A hungry man does not wish to talk much, he is rescued from backbiting, indecent talks and falsehoods. In case of satisfied eating, a man cannot control sexual organ. If he can control it for fear of God, he cannot control his eyes and mind and he does not get pleasure in invocation. A certain wise man said: If a sojourner towards the next world keeps patience by observing the rules of religion and eats for one year half belly full with bread only without any curry. God removes from him the evil thoughts of enjoying women.

(6) Another benefit of hunger is sleeplessness. He who eats to his heart's content drinks much, and he who drinks much sleeps much. As many as. seventy truthful and pious men said unanimously: 'Excessive drining creates excessive sleep. Excessive sleep spoils life. Life is the most valuable thing of a man and so it is ruined by excessive sleep.

(7) Another benefit of hugger is that divine worship becomes easy. In case off excessive eating, one becomes lazy and idle and so divine service becomes difficult. The sage Sari Sakti said: I saw the saint Abu Zarzani taking drink of wheat dipped in water and asked him: Why do you take this trouble? I can recite Tasbih seventy times during the time taken by chewing bread of wheat 3:76and for that I did not take bread for the last forty years. He thought that change of food is loss of time. So every breath of life is a valuable asset which should be utilized by collecting wealth of the next world. It is easy for one who has got the habit of for bearing hunger. The saint Abu Solaiman D •ani mentioned six harms of eating with satisfaction. (1) Such a man does not get pleasure in invocation. (2) He can't remember the matters of knowledge and wisdom. (3) He loses the attribute of showing kindness to the people. (4) He feels difficulty in doing divine services. (5) Sexual passion and greed become strong in his mind. (6) When the worshipers are engaged in mosques, he is confined in privies.

(8) Another benefit of hunger is preservation of health and removal of diseases. A little quantity of food improves health and removes diseases. Excessive eating accumulate diseases in stomach and veins. The diseased man cannot do divine services, Zikr and pondering. Hunger removes all these difficulties.

Caliph Harun Rashid is reported to have called eminent physicians of his time of India, Byzantium, Iraq and Abyssinis and said to them: Give me such a medicine as can prevent all diseases. The Indian physician said: If you use black Ahliz, you will not be attacked with any disease. The Iraqi physician said: It is the medicine of white seeds of Helencha. The physician of Byzantium said: It is the medicine of Ahliz makes was most experienced said: The medicine of Ahliz makes the stomach narrow and creates a disease. The seeds of white Hellencha make the stomach soft and create a disease. They asked: What medicine have you got then? He said: What will not create any disease in my sight is this. Don't eat unless you feel hungry and lift up your hand when there remains a little hunger. They all said: You haven prescribed the right medicine.

A philosopher was asked imprisons of some physicians of the People of the Book about the following saying of the Prophet: One third of the belly is for food, one third for drink and one third for taking breath. He wondered at it and said: I have never heard of a more wise saying in the matter of little food than this and this must be the saying of a wise man. The Prophet said: Gluttony is the root of disease and restraint from food and drink is the root of cure. Teach the habit to which each organ is entitled. The physician was astonished to hear this saying of the Prophet. The 3:77sage Ibn Salim said: No disease can attack a man except death who eats according to rules bread of pure wheat. He was asked: What are its rules? He said: To eat it after being hungry and to rise up before satisfaction. A certain experienced physician said with condemnation of excessive eating: The most beneficial of all foods which are allowed to enter the stomach is pomegranate and the worst is salt, yet salt in small quantity is better than pomegranate and the worst is salt, yet salt in small quantity is better than pomegranate in large quantity. The Prophet said: Fast and you will be healthy and the body will be cured of the diseases on account of sting, hunger and little eating and the heart will be free from the diseases of infidelity, self conceit and other diseases.

(9) Another benefit of hunger is little expense. If you practice little eating, a little expense will be sufficient. The belly of a man becomes heavy who eats to his heart's content. He thinks every day for earning foods and says: Today what shall I eat? He roams throughout the day in earning foods and then falls in to unlawful earnings and commits sins or he earns lawful things but faces dishonor. Little expense comes to my mind. The sage Ibrahim-b-Adham being asked about high prices of food stuffs, said: Give-up these food stuffs and make them cheap. The saint Sahal Tastari said: A glutton is condemned lazy in divine service, (2) if he is a trader, he is not safe from dangers, (3) if anything comes to him he does not do justice to himself. In a word, attachment to the world is a cause of destruction of a man and the cause of this attachment is belly and sexual passion, and the cause of sexual passion is full satisfaction of belly. Little eating removes all these evils. The Prophet said: 'Knock at the door of Paradise by hunger.' He who is satisfied daily with one piece of bread becomes free from want. He does not depend on the people, gets free from sorrows and sufferings and can engage himself fully in divine service and trade of the next world. He then becomes one of those of whom God said: There are men whom business and buy and sale can not divert from the remembrance of God.

(10) Another benefit of hunger is to be ended with the attribute of charity and of giving up self-praise. One who keeps himself hungry and thirsty removes the hunger and thirst of another with his own meal and gives in charity his excess food to the orphans and the poor. On the Resurrection Day, he will take shelter under the shadow of his charity. What he eats is saved in privy and what he gives in charity is hoarded in his treasury. This is the gift of God. A man has got no wealth except what he stores up in his treasury by charity, what finishes after he eats and what gets old after he puts it on. So eat little. To spend in charity excess food is better than to eat with satisfaction.

Hazrat Hasn Basri recited this verse (33:72)1 offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof but man undertook it. Then he said: God asked the angels to carry this burden. He asked them; Will you bear the responsibility of this trust? God said: If you make it beautiful, you will get rewards. If you make it ugly, you will be punished. They said: We shall not accept it. He then presented it to men who accepted it as they are prone to make oppression on soul and ignorant of Lord's order. By God, they are now selling that trust in exchange of money. Thereafter there are making beautiful houses but make their graves narrow. They are making their bodies therewith stout and strong but they are making their religion lean and thin. Once the Prophet saw a man wfth building belly. He hinted at it and said: If you had spent it on other affairs, it would have been better for you.

These are. the ten benefits of hunger. Innumerable benefits come out of each benefit. So there is no end of the benefits of hunger. It is the most valuable asset for the next world. For this reason, a certain sage said: Hunger is a key to the next world and the door to asceticism. eating with satisfaction is the key to this world and the door to greed.

SOJOURNER IN THE PATH OF RELIGION: Those who wish the walk in the path of religion should observe the following rules to control the greed for food and drink. His first duty is that he shall not eat except lawful foods. If a man worships after eating unlawful food lives in a house built in the waves of sea. Besides this, there remain three duties to be observed in connection with food (1) quantity of meal, (2) time of meal, (3) and the kinds of meal.

QUANTITY OF MEAL: Litte food is good. A man should lessen his meal gradually and not at a time. There are four stages of meal according to the degree of piety. The first and the highest is the stage of a Siddiq or truthful man. He eats what is absolutely 3:78J~ I I

II,

so necessary to upkeep his today. The saint Sahal Tastari said: A man can worship by three things life, intellect and strength. When a man fears loss of life and intellect, he should eat and if he then fasts, he should break it. It is the unanimous opinion of the learned men that it is better to pray sitting owing to weakness of hunger than to pray standing after eating with satisfaction. When . he was asked about his quantity of food, he replied: My meal for a whole year cost me nearly three dirhams. One day I purchase wheat with one dirham, fine rice with one dirham and clarified butter with one dirham. After mixing them all, I make 360 small pieces. Every evening, I break fast with one piece only.

The second stage of meal consists of half 'mud' which is the general practice. Half 'mud' is equivalent to 25 tolas of food or ten morsels. This fills up nearly one-third of belly. The Prophet said: A few morsels are sufficient for a man. He recommended this quantity of food to be eaten. Hazrat Omar used to eat not more then seven to nine morsels. The third stage of meal consists of one 'Mud' or fifty tolas a day. It may fill up two thirds of belly. The fourth stage consists of meal of a little more than one 'Mud' per day. If a man eats in excess of this quantity, he commits the sin of extravagance of which God says: Eat and drink but do not squander 7:31. The fifth stage of meal is the general rule and majority partake of this quantity of food. They take much more than half a seer. They are often cheated by false hunger.

SIGNS OF TRUE HUNGER

(1) The first sign of hunger is the will to eat only rice or bread even though there is no curry. If there is no will to take rice or bread without curry, there is no real hunger. (2) The second sign of real hunger is that such a man licks the plate or dish of meal. It means that he does not allow any greasy or oily things in the dish to remain.