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225 CHAPTER 27 Personal Observance Dietary Laws and Customs Islam observes a system of permitted and forbidden foods that has a number of parallels with Judaism, but as we noted previously, Judaism is stricter with regard to its dietary laws than Islam. This is duly noted in the Qur’an, which criticizes what it considers to be the overly restrictive attitudes of Jews toward permitted foods. As always, the anonymous qur’anic voice is the word of God. “We have forbidden to the Jews everything with claws, and of the oxen and the flocks we have forbidden the fat except what they carry on their backs or intestines or what is mixed with the bone. This we repaid them for their iniquity, for We are truthful” (Q.6:46). This is contrasted with what is articulated as a more generous system. “Say: ‘I do not find in what was revealed to me any restrictions about eating except what is [already] dead, or blood poured out, or pig flesh—for that is an abomination—or what is sinfully offered to other than God.’ But if one is compelled without desiring it and without backsliding, God is forgiving, compassionate” (Q.6:45). The frame for the qur’anic articulation of dietary rules is beneficence rather than restriction. “Believers, eat of the good things that We have provided you, and give thanks to God if it is He whom you worship. He has only forbidden you dead animals (al-mayta), the blood (al-damm), and the flesh of pigs (lah . m al-khinzīr), and what has been offered up to other than God. But if one is compelled without desiring it or backsliding, then no sin accrues to him, for God is forgiving, compassionate” (Q.2:72–73). As has been noted above, it 226 A N I N T R O D U C T I O N T O I S L A M F O R J E W S is not unusual for the Qur’an to repeat phrases and themes, so like the Torah (cf. Leviticus , Deuteronomy 4), the rules are spelled out more than once. The Qur’an associates eating with God’s generosity. As in reference to other aspects of God’s creations, food is made available to humanity through God’s mercy and compassion, but that does not permit humanity to be ungrateful or careless. “It is God who originated gardens, trellised and un-trellised, and the date-palm, and various seeded foods, the olive and the pomegranate, the like and the unlike. Eat of the fruit that they bear, and pay what is due on the day of harvest. But do not be wasteful, for God does not love the wasteful” (Q.6:4). The term for permitted foods is h . alāl, and for forbidden foods, h . arām. These terms are used also for other activities or items that are permitted or forbidden in Islam. As we have noted above, however, the juridical traditions include moderating terms such as makrūh, which refers to behaviors or objects disapproved but not forbidden. This applies to certain foods as well. As may be gathered from some of the earlier references, the Qur’an forbids outright many of the same categories that are forbidden also by the Torah. “Forbidden to you is dead animals, the blood, the flesh of pigs and what has been offered to other than God, that which has been strangled, beaten to death or has fallen, has been gored or has been eaten by [other] wild animals except what you have slaughtered yourselves, and what has been sacrificed on a stone pillar, and what you have divined by means of divining arrows. This is an abomination . . . but if anyone is compelled by hunger and not disinclination , God is forgiving, merciful” (Q.5:3).2 This clearly restricts the choice of permitted foods, but as in the earlier citation it is framed as beneficence and generosity. The following two verses continue, “They ask what is permitted to them. Say: good things are permitted to you, and what you have taught hunting animals to catch by teaching them what God has taught you. So eat what they catch for you, but pronounce the name of God over it and be Godfearers , for God is swift in accounting. Today good things are permitted to you, and the food of those who have been given the Book is permitted to you, and your food...

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