PORK: The Final frontier

I have long been baffled by the abundance of Muslims who drink and copulate but refuse to eat pork in any form. While I have come to believe (after exhaustive debates) that it is almost impossible to convince the majority to even try a bite of fried bacon with their egg, I do wish to put these various ‘sins’ in comparative context.

Whether or not you chose to vary your degree of indulgence after reading this, I do hope that you will at least be more mindful of the nature of these transgressions. I will primarily quote texts from the Quran, since the authenticity of Hadith, even Sahih Bukhari, proves to be ‘questionable’ when in contrast with personal beliefs

Drinking:

Let’s take a look at the verses prohibiting drinking:

“They ask you [Prophet] about intoxicants and gambling: say, "There is great sin in both, and some benefit for people: the sin is greater than the benefit.” (Quran 2:219)

This doesn’t seem too harsh, it seems to admit that drinking can be fun but maintains that the sin is heavier. A much sterner plea comes in chapter 5, verses 90 and 91:

“O believers! Wine and gambling and idols and divining arrows are only unclean things, a work of devil (Satan) then save yourselves from them, so that you may prosper.”

“The devil desires only to create enmity and hatred among you by means of intoxicants and games of chance, and to keep you back from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. Will you then refrain?”

If you trust Sahih Bukhair, then this would also be of relevance:

Volume 8, Book 81, Number 764: Narrated Anas bin Malik:

“The Prophet beat a drunk with palm-leaf stalks and shoes. And Abu Bakr gave (such a sinner) forty lashes.”

Eating pork or non-halal chicken? Is there a difference?

Well not really, but since so many people have managed to force/create one, I must be missing something. Quranic verses prohibit both things in the same breath:

“He has only made unlawful to you the Carrion, and blood and the flesh of swine and the animal that has been slaughtered by calling a name other than Allah. But he who is driven by necessity, eat neither desiring not, exceeding the need then there is no sin on him, no doubt, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.” (2:173)

The same principle is repeated in (5:3), (6:145) and (16:115) with the addition of dead meat and a few methods of killing.

Friends with benefits?

An increasingly popular ideology among ‘partial sinners’ seems to be that copulation without the institute of marriage is acceptable. What two adults choose to do with each other in the privacy of their home should not anyone else’s business, right? WRONG! When it comes to eating and biting, doing so to satisfying your carnal hunger seems to provoke the most anger.

“The man and the woman guilty of fornication , flog each of them (with) a hundred stripes, and let not pity for them detain you from obedience to Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day, and let a party of believers witness their chastisement.” (Quran 24:2)

“And those of your women guilty of lewdness; take the evidence of four males from amongst you against them; and if they testify, confine them to houses until death do claim them, or Allah ordain for them some (other) way.” (Quran 4:15)

“And come not near Zina. Lo! It is an abomination and an evil way.” (Quran 17:32)

I would also recommend reading Chapter 24 verses 2-8. It deals with the production of four witnesses to enforce these laws (sometimes argued as a basis to nullify these verses altogether). Inability to produce witnesses can result in 80 lashes, and a husband can apparently be equivalent to four witnesses.

Conclusion:

Whatever arguments are strung around the enforcement of these various laws, the fact remains that they are the laws dictated in the Quran. For a Muslim who claims to hold this as the unchanged word of the Creator of the universe, it should be clear that sex is a far greater sin then eating pork. And no more sinful then eating non-halal chicken. To be fanatically meticulous about one specific ‘sin’, while happily persisting with others of equal or greater magnitude is a curious act. Is it really a matter of faith and morality? Or is it just popular culture being inherited?

So if you happen to wake up in a beloved’s arms and refuse to have bacon for breakfast, I hope that you will at least pause to reconsider.