Eating non halal non zabiha
Reply #2 - May 05, 2017, 04:14 AM
Hi, Jaiboi. I can understand what you are going through.
I’m from a secular society where halal food is considered the bottom line; pretty much everything else can be forgiven as the secular part but not this (neither the sexual issues but I was a prude and took that as self-evident).
In those years that I became truly devout, I found that attitude deeply questionable. Eating none halal food is not even a major sin in Islam and could be forgiven under certain circumstances. And traditionally my people have used pork, pig milk and other weird animals for medicine use, so this frenzy that people wouldn’t even walk past a non halal restaurant lest they breath in something, or that they wouldn't buy vegetables from non-Muslim groceries, is quite new. And personally I don’t think there is anything immoral about it. The Jews and Christians have different rules and they still go to heaven.
I have been laughed and bullied for observing dietary rules, missed a lot of parties, endured incredibly terrible food, and have survived on fruits for days on different occasions. Even when my faith in Islam faded and eventually came into naught, I still had difficulty breaking it. ( I have broken a lot of it by now.)
I used to berate myself on this but I later learned that our ability to feel disgust is one of our most important primitive instincts and have more influence on our lives than most of us would give credit for. And when it comes to food, we make some of the most irrational decisions in our lives. Since I wouldn’t eat a lizard even if it is written in hadith that it is halal (no offence to those who do), my preference to the diet that I was raised in doesn’t mean that I’m still clinging on to superstitions.
So my advice would be, relax and take time. The readings about disgust are not in English or I would have recommended to you. Maybe you can find some and accept the fact that we don’t always make rational decisions.
Topic: Eating non halal non zabiha