Why Muslims Abstain from Pork

Halal dietary rules are based on the principle of "wholesome and good." Beyond the usual sense of color, form, taste or nutrition, "wholesome and good" mainly refers to the food's "cleanliness and character." Muslims value both "hygiene and moral purity" - truly "eating to nurture character." Herbivores such as cattle, sheep and camels are gentle by nature and clean in diet, whereas sharp-toothed, fanged carnivores or animals that eat carrion and filth - such as pigs, dogs and crows - are greedy and vicious by nature and unclean in diet.

Regarding forbidden foods, Halal principles fundamentally mention "pork, blood, alcohol, carrion, and animals slaughtered in a name other than Allah's." On this basis, Muhammad further elaborated specifically, and later Muslim scholars added some rules on these two foundations, forming the Muslim dietary precepts.

The reason "alcohol" is forbidden is that it can temporarily deprive a person of reason, put the nerves in an anesthetized state, and cause loss of self-control over one's words and actions, thereby bringing harm to oneself and others. For Muslims this harm is not only physical and material; sometimes the loss of control over speech and spirit leads to loss of faith. Therefore alcohol is strictly forbidden, regarded - along with gambling and the like - as a devilish act that causes social harm, provokes strife among people, and worsens interpersonal relations. This was so in ancient society, and it is so in today's world. According to one newspaper report: 60% of juvenile gang-fight crimes in Shanghai were triggered by excessive drinking. Many divorce cases also result from one party's drinking, leading to marital discord and family breakdown. Injuries from drunk driving are likewise related to alcohol.

Alcohol is becoming a major social problem in some countries and regions, and the World Health Organization keeps stepping up its campaign against alcohol. Islam long ago forbade alcohol and all foods that cause loss of reason after consumption, such as opium and the like. As for the question some raise about low-alcohol drinks like beer or drinking just a little, these are undoubtedly also forbidden, because the law forbids a thing based on its nature itself; the question of quantity is merely a matter of degree.

Blood. In some scriptures, blood is regarded as the source of life and forbidden to drink. The prohibition on drinking blood also relates to human health. The development of science and the invention of the microscope advanced medicine; observing blood under a microscope can reveal countless kinds of bacteria, and a tiny drop of blood can undergo dozens of tests and analyses, facilitating Western medicine's diagnosis of disease. Blood is also a direct means of disease transmission - if the plasma contains bacteria, the recipient of a transfusion is immediately infected.

Carrion. Carrion refers to animals that died abnormally without being slaughtered and bled - such as dying of disease, falling, or being crushed. Eating carrion is forbidden because of its abnormal death, with blood soaked and retained in the body, or death from disease, which is harmful to human health after consumption. Today, whatever food people eat, they choose fresh - so for vegetables and fish, let alone livestock and poultry! And animals slaughtered in a name other than Allah's.

Pork. Speaking of not eating pork, perhaps everyone in today's world knows this is forbidden to Muslims. In China, as soon as people know you do not eat pork, they immediately think you are Hui; mention the Hui, and they instantly know you do not eat pork. Not eating pork has almost become the mark of a Muslim and a byword for the Hui.

In fact, not eating pork is not exclusive to Muslims. The human history of loathing and forbidding pigs can be traced back 5,000 years to the ancient civilization of Egypt. In an ancient mural, one can see that the souls of all evildoers were fed to pigs. The Jewish scripture Leviticus 11:7-8, from 3,000 years ago, says: "...And the swine, though it divides the hoof into two parts, yet does not chew the cud, it is unclean to you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you." So Jews do not eat pork.

China is the country that consumes the most pork, but more than 2,700 years ago in ancient society, the Book of Rites (Liji) - highly esteemed by Confucius - has a line in the chapter "Shao Yi": "The gentleman does not eat pork from a filthy sty." The propriety that Confucius repeatedly pursued in "restraining oneself and returning to propriety" took the Zhou dynasty's Book of Rites as its standard. Why do humans generally loathe and forbid pigs? Let us discuss from the following aspects:

Pigs are ugly and strange in appearance, greedy and stupid by nature. In describing people as ugly, lazy or stupid, the languages of all peoples around the world use the pig as a metaphor.

Pigs love filth. Their living areas are filthy, and the feed they eat is also filthy, hardly comparable to herbivores.

Vicious and erratic by nature. As the saying goes, "Even a fierce tiger does not eat its cubs," but once a pig is extremely hungry, it will eat even the piglets it bore. Most animals, even little birds, will form some emotional bond with the person who raises them, and stories of loyal dogs saving their masters and other animals helping people are widely known. But pigs sometimes even gore to death and eat the infant of the person who raises them; their nature exceeds even that of tigers and wolves.

In fact, for Muslims, not only do they not raise pigs or eat their meat, but in their way of life they also shun the filthiness, dirtiness, greed, laziness, stupidity and other vices possessed by pigs and similar animals. The Quran condemns all such vices, and other civilizations likewise spurn them; not eating means staying away from the vices they possess. This is precisely why Muslims also do not eat fierce birds and beasts and other strange, greedy, cruel animals. The standard of what Muslims may eat is "wholesome and good": the "handsome in appearance, gentle in nature, clean" may be eaten, while the "strange in appearance, vicious in nature, filthy" may not.