EATING AND DRINKING (I)

It is written in the book entitled Shir’at-ul-islâm that learning the knowledge of eating and drinking takes priority over learning the knowledge of worship. It is sunnat to add some barley into bread made with wheat; it yields a lot of barakat to do so. One of the earliest bid’ats that appeared in Islam is to eat until becoming fully satiated. It causes vexation in the heart to eat meat daily. Angels do not like a person who does so. Eating little meat, on the other hand, causes moral corruption. It is commendable to eat sitting on a blanket spread out on the ground. The blanket is preferrably made of leather. Eating on a handkerchief was the custom of ancient Persians. It is very good vegetables. A meal table that does not contain any vegetable food is like an old dotard. Imâm Ja’fer Sâdiq stated: “If a person wants to have plenty of property and many children, he should eat vegetable food!” First you must sit at the table, and the food must be brought in thereafter. Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “I am a quls (born slave of Allâhu ta’âlâ). Like (other) quls, I eat sitting on the ground.” You must not eat before becoming hungry, you should stop eating before becoming fully satiated, you should not laugh unless there is something laughable, and you should not sleep during the day [any longer than the (forenoon siesta called) Qaylûla, which is sunnat]. It is stated in a hadîth-i-sherîf: “The source of all goodnesses is hunger. The source of all evils is (the state of) satiatedness.”