Explanation of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “O you who have believed, eat from the good things We have provided for you and be grateful to Allah if it is Him you worship. Only the dead, blood, the flesh of the pig, and what is dedicated to other than Allah has been made forbidden to you…”

The Shaykh : In these noble verses, Allah the Exalted commanded us to eat from the good things He has provided for us, meaning what He has given us. This command is a command of permissibility. It may be a recommendation, or it may be obligatory. If leaving off eating leads to harm, then eating becomes obligatory. If a person leaves off eating out of piety and scrupulousness, then eating becomes recommended, and he may even be obligated to eat. If he leaves it off because he has no desire for it, then it is permissible. The important point is that Allah has made the good things permissible for us, and He began the verse with faith, because for the non-believer, eating the good things is not lawful, though he is not prevented from doing so. The benefit of saying “it is not lawful for him” alongside “he is not prevented” is that his punishment in the Hereafter will be severe, for he will be punished for what he ate. The disbeliever today does not raise a morsel to his mouth without being reckoned for it, nor does he swallow a drop of water without being reckoned for it, nor does he wear a garment to protect him from heat or cold without being punished for it. But he is not prevented, by general or specific mercy? By general mercy. The evidence for that is This indicates that upon the non-believers who do righteous deeds is a burden. And Allah the Exalted said: They will not be reckoned for them. If the non-believers do not have [these things] and they are not pure for them on the Day of Resurrection, the meaning necessitates that it is not lawful for them to eat, drink, wear, or dwell, in the sense that they will be punished for them. Because we say: these are the ones Allah created and created for them, so He prepared them and supplied them, and then they disbelieved in His favor. Reason asks: Did You make lawful for them what You gave them, or did You make it forbidden? You made it forbidden for them. A people who rebelled from the obedience of the Creator who prepared and supplied them, and then it is said to them, “Eat, it is lawful for you.” This is contrary to observation and clear reason. Thus, revelation and reason indicate that the requirement of wisdom is that these people be reckoned for what they ate. Therefore, if you showered goodness upon your slave, your bondman, and then whenever you commanded him, he said to you, by his state or by his words, “No obedience and no listening,” and you said, “Go, pray with so-and-so in his mosque,” so he goes to pray in a mosque farther away than the nearby mosque, does he deserve honor? He deserves punishment. So here we say: Allah is the Greatest. Enjoy the blessings and be grateful for them, and gratitude is the performance of obedience to the Bestower of blessings. The object was placed before the verb to indicate restriction, meaning: if you are truthful that you do not worship except Allah, then be grateful for the blessing. He said: This verse contains a restriction. to the end of it. And is this restriction real or relative? Some scholars held that it is real, and said that the verse in al-Baqarah is among the last of what was revealed, being Medinan, and the restriction in it is clear. “Only the dead has been made forbidden to you” means that nothing has been forbidden except this dead, the blood, the flesh of the pig, and what is dedicated to other than Allah—four things—and whatever is besides that is lawful and good. As for the Sunnah, they said, yes, the Sunnah is on the eye and the head. But did the Sunnah come with “forbidden” or “prohibited”? If it is “prohibited,” the prohibition may be for dislike, not for prohibition. But if it is “forbidden,” how easy it is for some people to say, “This is an addition to what is in the Qur’an, so we do not accept it.” Yes, but the stronger position is to say that the restriction here is relative, because these things they used to eat—the ones He forbade here—were eaten. So, to emphasize their prohibition, the prohibition was restricted to them, as if nothing was forbidden in the world except these which you find delicious. So the restriction is relative, and we act according to what the Sunnah indicates regarding the prohibition of domestic donkeys, every predator with fangs, and every bird with talons. And His saying: “not desiring nor transgressing.” The correct view is that the meaning of “desiring” (baghi) here is the seeker, meaning the seeker of the forbidden, the one who desires it. And “transgressing” (‘adi) is the one who exceeds, who takes what he does not need and is not forced to. So whoever is forced, while not seeking the forbidden food and not transgressing in it, and he eats more, then there is no sin upon him. As for the one who is forced but then seeks the forbidden food, such as if he has a slaughtered animal but it is lean, and a dead animal but it is fat, and he says, “I am forced, what do I do? The fat one has much fat and little meat and is luxurious, and this lean one may have thick meat. I will not slaughter this lean one; I have this fat one, I will cut from it and eat.” We say: Did this man have necessity or not? He had necessity. Did he seek the dead animal or not? He sought it. This is forbidden, because Allah only made it permissible for the one in necessity on the condition that he not be a seeker or a transgressor. — My brother, I hope you will teach us if the time ends.
The reader: Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
Al-Bukhari (may Allah have mercy on him) said: The Book of Sacrifices.

The Shaykh : We have not finished the discussion.