WHY PORK IS HARAM- MEDICAL REASONS

The Muslims follow the Quran and Sunnah. The Quran provide the direction to the Muslim about their day to day matter of life. The food is the basic need and Allah has permitted and describe the food for the Muslims in the following verses of Holy Quran.

The Honey Beess (An-Naĥl):114 - So eat of the lawful and good food which Allah hath provided  for you, and thank the bounty of your Lord if it is Him ye serve.

پس خدا نے جو تم کو حلال طیّب رزق دیا ہے اسے کھاؤ۔ اور الله کی نعمتوں کا شکر کرو۔ اگر اسی کی عبادت کرتے ہو

The Honey Beess (An-Naĥl):115 - He hath forbidden for you only carrion and blood and  swine flesh and that which hath been immolated in the name of any other than Allah; but he who is driven thereto, neither craving nor transgressing, lo! then Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

اس نے تم پر مُردار اور لہو اور سور کا گوشت حرام کردیا ہے اور جس چیز پر خدا کے سوا کسی اور کا نام پکارا جائے (اس کو بھی) ہاں اگر کوئی ناچار ہوجائے تو بشرطیکہ گناہ کرنے والا نہ ہو اور نہ حد سے نکلنے والا تو خدا بخشنے والا مہربان ہے

The Honey Beess (An-Naĥl):116 - And speak not, concerning that which your own tongues qualify  (as clean or unclean), the falsehood: "This is lawful, and this is forbidden," so that ye invent a lie against Allah. Lo! those who invent a lie against Allah will not succeed.

اور یوں ہی جھوٹ جو تمہاری زبان پر آجائے مت کہہ دیا کرو کہ یہ حلال ہے اور یہ حرام ہے کہ خدا پر جھوٹ بہتان باندھنے لگو۔ جو لوگ خدا پر جھوٹ بہتان باندھتے ہیں ان کا بھلا نہیں ہوگا

The above verses clearly depict that the Flesh of Swine is prohibited (Haram) in Islam. The Halal things are clean and hygienic, while the non halal things are unclean, Nag’s and Unhygienic.  I would like to share with thanks the article written by Dr. Hassan Mustafa regarding harmful effect of Swine flesh on human health with the following title.

Eight medical reasons to prohibit swine flesh.

Dr. Hassaan Mustafa, a member of the World Union of Health in Canada, enumerate to us the diseases transmitted by the flesh of swine to man:

1. The pig cannot get rid of the entire quantity of uric acid that is formed in its body, given that it is the main element of urine. It gets rid of only 2% and 98% remains in its flesh. That simply means that the flesh of swine is saturated with the main element of urine, which the bodies of all living beings on the surface of the earth endeavour to get rid of through the urinary system, due to the poisonous substances it contains. This is why those who eat the flesh of swine have high rates of arthritis, due to the high rate of uric acid in their blood.

2. The flesh of swine is hard to digest; and it takes four complete hours in order to be digested, given that the amount of digested protein that is absorbed after that process does not exceed 14%. For this reason, the flesh of swine is nutritiously bad and unworthy of the money paid for it, given that the flesh of swine, in many countries, is more expensive than the flesh of other animals whose flesh is edible with no similar problems.

3. The flesh of swine contains high rates of the growth hormone, which accelerates the proliferation of cancer cells if there are any.

4. The fat of swine is hard to digest and emulsify in the digestive system. The greatest portion of it is formed of harmful saturated fats. It is absorbed from the intestines into the blood in the form of huge molecules, that might possibly sediment on the walls of blood vessels and block them, causing blood clot, let alone sclerosis and noticeable high rates of cholesterol and saturated fats (triglycerides) in the blood.

5. The fat of swine sediments in the human body in the same place it comes from in the pig; and this is indeed strange!!! If the fat comes from the belly of the pig, it would settle in the belly of the person who eats it. In this way, the fat of swine helps distort the human body.

6. Eating the flesh of swine paves the way for many ailments and skin problems and diseases, like pimples, sores, fat sacks, and itching, for it contains a high rate of histamine.

7. Pigs and their flesh are the source of more than 57 parasitic, germ-caused and virus-caused diseases transmitted to man, of which a mention may be made of Trichinella, from which the flesh of swine could hardly be free. Trichinella parasites remain in the muscles of man, causing severe pains that might probably paralyze their movement. They might also remain in the diaphragm, causing breathlessness and consequently death. Moreover, those parasites might remain for more than thirty years in the muscles after encasing themselves in a calcic sac.

It is quite interesting to know that an American researcher published on the Archives of Internal Medicine website in 11/6/2001 that the renowned German musician Mozart (d.1791) likely died because of eating uncooked flesh of swine 44 days before the beginning of his 15-day fatal ailment. He was infected by Trichinella, which had not yet been known at that time.

8. The body of the pig in itself is regarded as a biological factory that has the potential to produce virus-caused diseases and epidemics that might affect man due to the genetic resemblance of pig cells to those of man. The world pandemic called swine flu which we are witnessing now is a result of the metamorphosis and merging of the viruses of bird flu, human flu and swine flu, together inside the body of the pig. They have been metamorphosed into a new deadly virus that is transferred from pigs to people and from man to man. In Canada, a case has been recently recorded where that disease was transmitted from an infected person to a herd of pigs, thus making that pandemic enter a dangerous integrated cycle.

E. A. Widmer, Ph.D., is professor and program director of environmental health, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University writes in Ministry international journal for pastors in May 1988. below are some of his article references.

The prohibition against eating pork is clearly stated in Scripture: "And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you" (Lev. 11:7, 8, NIV).(New international version)

Those who avoid eating pork on biblical grounds do so because they believe that the Leviticus 11 prohibition against eating unclean meats was given for reasons relating to health.

The results of research in recent years can help us understand why the Lord included the pig among the animals that were not to be eaten by His people. Pork consumption is now associated with coronary heart disease, cancer, and certain communicable diseases.

1. Pigs are noteworthy as hosts for the intestinal trichina roundworm, Trichinetta spiralis, which causes the disease trichinosis.

2. A disease with symptoms that doctors often attribute to intestinal flu, pneumonia, or rheumatism.

Pork and pork products are not the only means of human infection with trichinosis. Outbreaks from eating horse, bear, or walrus or other marine mammals have also been reported.

3. Pork is the most common source in most cultures. Since the eating of pork and other types of meat are the only routes of transmission both human and animal trichinosis infections have been reported from Central America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe (this parasite does not exist in Australia and certain islands of the South Pacific regions. ) 

Pork tapeworms.

Tapeworms are yet another problem that eating pork poses. The adult pork tapeworm can reach a length of 10 feet, and it can live for several decades in the small intestine. This worm can have as many as 1,000 segments, each with a uterus and the ability to produce eggs that can infect humans and swine through fecal-oral contamination or by reverse transport of the eggs from the intestine to the stomach. In either case the embryos penetrate the stomach wall, enter the blood, and are transported throughout the body. The embryos form small cysts, and these develop into bladder worms (the immature stage) in muscle, internal organs, eyes, and/or brain. The bladder worms can survive for as long as five years. If infection is wide spread, it can simulate a brain tumor, epilepsy, or other neurological or psychiatric disorders.

People become infected with the adult tapeworm by eating under-cooked pork infected with bladder worms. Once in the intestinal tract, the worm develops into its adult form.

Chronic diseases.

Pork contributes not only to the spread of communicable diseases but also to the development of the chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, strokes, and cancer.

The occurrence and severity of coronary heart disease increases with an increase in dietary cholesterol, total dietary fat, and especially saturated fats. Pork contains only a moderate amount of cholesterol, but is a major source of fat. Even the leanest cuts of pork derive more than 34 percent of their calories from fat, and most pork products derive 50 to 75 percent of their calories from fat. Because it is high in saturated fat, pork con tributes to increased cholesterol production. This in turn increases the blood cholesterol levels so strongly connected to coronary heart disease and strokes. Compounding the problem, many pork products contain a very high level of sodium, a factor in high blood pressure, which is also a strong risk factor for both coronary heart disease and strokes.

Pork is also implicated in breast cancer, prostate cancer, and cancer of the colon. Mortality from breast cancer rises as a woman's consumption of pork (specifically) and total fats increases.  Prostate cancer is associated with the consumption of a high-fat diet, both saturated and animal fats. Studies on the incidence of colon cancer show that those having the disease consume more refined wheat bread, meat (especially pork) > and beer, and have a low intake of dietary fiber.

The scriptural texts in Leviticus may seem rather dictatorial and arbitrary, but when they are considered from the vantage point of the science of communicable diseases, we can see that the prohibitions are significant public health measures for prevention of several potentially serious diseases.