Why is it forbidden for Muslims to eat pork?

hunnybunny

Why is it forbidden for a Muslim to eat pork? I have asked this question to many of my Muslim friends. A few didn t know why but were just indoctrinated with the belief that its forbidden. They d never questioned until I asked...

A popular answer especially amongst kids is that a pig is a dirty animal who eats it own crap.
But if that was the case wouldn t all animals be forbidden to eat????

A cow grazes in a field with its own feaces. Not to be gross but the grass eaten by the cow would have grown from that waste:D. I have seen chicken eat anything including bits of chicken as well as pecking around its own waste. My own dog eats his own waste (I do try and stop him when I catch him) But at the end of the day they are animals who sometimes don t know better.

People didn t take it to well when I put this argument to them.

Sorry to gross them out but its a fact of life.

Is there another reason for pig meat to be forbidden? Maybe because of the high fat content of pork its a health risk and could harm the body? That would make sense, but not purely on the reason that a pig eats its his own waste.

anti-venom

I think it had originally something to do with salt. Salt was a very expensive commodity in those regions and simply too much of it would have to be used and wasted in preserving the pig meat. Also the pork would not preserve too well in the hot desert conditions and there was a heightened risk of food poisoning from eating decaying meat.

Another explaination is that there is no real reason other than God forbids it. It was seen as something of a test of ones devotion to God to forego pork. No reason other than it was a lifelong challenge and something to do to curry favour with God. I think that's the gist of the theological argument but the first one about the salt is the more likely. If you can't get people to stop wasteing salt get God to do it and call it a sin.

nozzferrahhtoo

I dont know the reason on this one either. I know the muslim distaste for dogs comes from the Hadith where the prophet is meant to have shown a distaste for dogs and muslims tend to do what he did. Maybe at some point he did the same with pigs. If the Denny company had been around making their tastey rashers maybe things would have been different.

I do know I missed a good rasher in Morrocco though. Everywhere I walked the muslim locals were selling Hash on the street corners. If you passed an alley you would here "psssssst.... hash here" coming from a shadey looking character. All the locals that I got on well with would invariably on parting with me blessing me with one hand in the name of allah while holding a freshly rolled joint in the other.

I walked all over that city and if I had once heard a shadey character on the corner going "pssssst..... wanna rasher?" I would have been straight down that alley with my money in one hand and open bit of bread butter and ketchup in the other......

hunnybunny

Everywhere I walked the muslim locals were selling Hash on the street corners. If you passed an alley you would here "psssssst.... hash here" coming from a shadey looking character. All the locals that I got on well with would invariably on parting with me blessing me with one hand in the name of allah while holding a freshly rolled joint in the other.

You know its funny. Some Muslims would never drink alcohol, yet would smoke hash freely.
The reason for this is that alcohol is expressly forbidden. There is nothing written about weed/hash. Therefore some interperet this to be a green light.

HOWEVER the koran does state that one should not harm their body or abuse it in an unhealthy way. I have a friend who does not even smoke cigarettes as he considers it HARAM (sin) to hurt the body. In that case the same could be said for overeating.

I even asked a friend if the prophet Mohommed was here today do you really think he would approve of smoking hash or doing drugs. She replied no she really doesn t think he would.

larryone

I had thought that all omnivours were haram, and this includes pigs.
Muslims only eat herbivours afaik.