SAYINGS OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD (S.A.W)

Before proceeding to the listing of foods, it is worthwhile to provide the statements of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) relating to manners, hygiene, prevention, and similar topics, bearing on health.

Said the Prophet of Muhammad (s.a.w.):

Allah did not create any illness without also creating the remedy, except death[old age].Allah said that,,who lives according to the Qur'an will have a long life.

The origin of every disease is cold. So eat when you desire and refrain when you desire.

The stomach is the home of disease and abstinence the head of every remedy. So make this your custom.

In the sight of Allah, the best food is a food shared by many.

To eat the morning meal alone is to eat with syaitan; to eat with one other person is to eat with a tyrant; to eat with two other persons is to eat with the Prophets Muhammad(s.a.w) (peace be upon them all).

Allow your food to cool before eating, for in hot food there is no blessing.

When you eat, take your shoes off, for then indeed your feet have more rest. This is an excellent advice.

There is blessing in the middle of a dish. So commence from the side and not from the middle.

There is blessing in three things: in the early morning meal, in bread and in soup.

Brush your teeth with a miswak [a wooden toothpick usually made from a twig of the pelu tree] after a meal and rinse out your mouth. For these two practices are a safeguard for the eyeteeth and the wisdom teeth.

Use miswak, for this practice comes from cleanliness, and cleanliness comes from faith, and faith takes its practitioner to heaven.

The dish pleads for mercy for the one who takes up the last morsel [do not be wasteful].

Eat together and then disperse, for a blessing resides in groups.

Less food, less sin~

To horde in these things is unlawful: wheat, barley, raisins, millet, fats, honey, cheese, walnuts, and olives.

Let no one drink while standing up, except one who is suffering from sciatica.

Eat your meal at dawn, for there is blessing in a meal at dawn.

When I was taken up into Heaven, I did not pass one angel who did not say to me: "O Muhammad (s.a.w.), tell your people to make use of scarification [allowing out a small amount of blood from an incision].The best treatment that you have is scarification, coriander, and costus [an East Indian herb].

Whoever is sick for seven days, thereby he expiates before Allah the sins of seventy years.

There is no pain like pain in the eye, and no worry like the worry of a debt.

When the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) came before a sick person, he used to say: "Get rid of evil delusions. Strength is with Allah the Almighty. Cure and be cured. There is no healing but Yours."

*The implication here is that one should exhibit a selfless reserve and allow another to obtain the blessing, not hog it for oneself.