Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!bes
From: SX43%LIVERPOOL.AC.UK@evans.ucar.edu (Fazal R Ellahi)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Question regarding Pork
Message-ID: <1990Nov27.152402.28445@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 27 Nov 90 15:24:02 GMT
Sender: bes@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi)
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
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Approved: bes@tybalt.caltech.edu

As-Salaamu alaikum,

In article <1990Nov22.183944.21990@wpi.WPI.EDU>, shuque@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
(Sumon Huque) says:
>
>Could anyone give me a few solid convincing arguments that rationalize
>our position on not eating Pork. I am often confronted on this issue, and
>I have yet to come across a suitable reply.

There is a simple, conclusive, and short answer to this one, which is
that as a Muslim I believe the Qur'an to be the verbatim Arabic speech
of Allah, the One Who created me and everything else in creation. In it
He has commanded me not to eat pork, among other things. Period.

Now, as to the wisdoms behind this prohibition. Well, as we
believe, Allah is absolute (mutlaq?). His commands are full of Wisdom.
We cannot limit that Wisdom by saying that, for example, such and such
is THE reason why we are forbidden to eat pork.

What we can do is to look into the matter and discover that
_this_ property of pork, or _that_ or _the_other_ are PART of the wisdom
associated with the order not to eat pork. But they can't be the sole
reason.

I will now give some comments about pigs and pork, in the light
of the above. Firstly, I think I should clarify that it is the eating of
pig flesh which is described as an abomination, and forbidden, in the
Qur'an. Pigs themselves as creations of Allah are not condemned or
regarded as evil or anything. That, however, doesn't stop a lot of
Muslims to shudder with horror at the sight of a pig ! :-)

The major point I would like to make is I think the close
similarity beween the biological make-up of pigs and ourselves. This may
be surprising to some, but   the pig is given the nickname (in
anatomical circles) of 'the horizontal man'. A visiting academic who gave
a seminar in our department a few years ago told us that after the
theoretical modelling had been done (for some process occurring in the liver
of a human being,the model was tested on the liver of a pig, because the
anatomy was so similar. I have been told that the word for Humans in the
language of cannibals is 'Long Pig', apparently because we taste the same.
(Seriously). Pigs are also naturally very intelligent.

Pigs are also the only animal which acts as the host for a certain type
of worm which then infects humans who eat the infected pig meat. I forget
the name of the parasite, but ask any butcher in the high street and
he'll probably know (I think it is the tape worm).

Apparently studies have shown that people who eat pork suffer
from certain effects; they are more prone to violence for example. In a
prison there was a test done whereby half the prisoners were fed on pork
and half not, and the effects were discerned this way. I have heard that
other effects include not being affected by the opposite sex, but have
not had any evidence shown me about this.

But the bottom line is the fact that it is forbidden to eat the
flesh of a pig in the Qur'an, except under very special circumstances
(starvation..), and that is THE reason why we don't eat pork.

                    With Peace,

                    Fazal.