On Meat

First of all, the meat and dairy today is not the meat and dairy that grandma and grandpa ate. The meat that grandma and grandpa ate were free range, what they would call now organic, they didn't have a word for it because everything was organic fifty years ago. Organic free range, happily raised animals on farms, where they actually treated animals with some dignity. Farmers actually have relationships with their animals. They treated them with dignity.

Now, and my grandfather had a cattle ranch, so I actually spent my summers on a cattle ranch and I herded cattle and I saw. My grandfather, first time I got on a horse, before I got on a horse, he put a pencil in my mouth and yanked it back really hard, and he said that's what the horse feels when you're using that bit, so don't forget it. That was my first lesson because that's the way people taught, they had respect for their animals. In the United States, horses are not categorized as pets, they're categorized as livestock. You can starve a horse to death in America and not go to jail, which is wrong. Horses should have rights, animals have rights in Islam. This is not a new concept. Our religion gives animals rights. Ants have rights. In the book of zuhd, one of the sahaba used to go out and put bed crumbs on the ant hill that was near his house and one of the tabi'in asked what he was doing, he said I don't' want them testifying against me on yawmul qiyama, that I didn't fulfill the rights of the neighbor. And this is an ant hill. What kind of psychology did these people have? It's a different world they were living in.

The Prophet spoke to animals. He spoke to animals. Our Prophet spoke to animals. He spoke to them and they spoke back to him, this is not mythology, this is reality. We have people today that still speak to animals. Animals respond to you. They respond to you. They're sensing creatures, they have nervous systems, they feel pain, and they become depressed. In America we have dogs and cats on Prozac. This is a fact. Veterinarians prescribe Prozac for dogs in America. Don't think the dog is depressed because he's a dog. He's happy to be a dog. He's depressed because he's in a house that's depressing. The dog whisperer said, he doesn't go solve people's dog problems, he goes to solve dog's people problems. And the same is true for the horse whisperer, Buck, the horse whisperer said I don't solve people's horse problems, I solve horse's people problems. Animals are intuitive, they know when something's wrong.

Meat is not a necessity in Shari'ah, and in the old days most Muslims used to eat meat, if they were wealthy, like middle class—once a week on Friday. If they were poor—on the Eids.

So traditionally Muslims were semi-vegetarians. The Prophet was, I mean, technically, the Prophet (SAWS) was in that category. He was not a meat-eater. Most of his meals did not have meat in them. And the proof of that is clearly in the Muwatta—when Sayyidina Umar says, 'Beware of meat, because it has an addiction like the addiction of wine.' And the other hadith in the Muwatta—there is a chapter called 'Bab al-Laham,' the chapter of laham, the chapter of meat. Both are from Sayyidina Umar. And Umar, during his khilafa, prohibited people from eating meat two days in a row. He only allowed them to eat [it] every other day. And the khalifa has that right to do that. He did not let people eat meat every day. He saw one man eating meat every day, and he said to him, 'Every time you get hungry you go out and buy meat? Right? In other words, every time your nafs wants meat, you go out and buy it?' He said, 'Yeah, Amir al-Mumineen, ana qaram,' which in Arabic, 'qaram' means 'I love meat'—he's a carnivore, he loves meat. And Sayyidina Umar said, 'It would be better for you to roll up your tummy a little bit so that other people can eat.'

Now, if there was a prophet after the Prophet, it would have been Umar. And that is really verging on prophecy, that statement. Because if you study the modern meat industry, you will find out that a lot of the famine in the world is a direct result of the overconsumption of meat in countries like the United States and Canada and Europe, because the amount of grain needed to produce 1 pound of meat, right, is much greater than the amount you need to produce grain itself. And beef in particular—I really recommend Rifkin's book Beyond Beef. It's an extraordinary book. And it's interesting 'Baqara' is also a chapter of the Qur'an ('kill the cow'), because beef-eating societies just have massive impact on the environment, on natural resources, on all these things. And traditionally the Muslims were not cow-eaters, they were sheep and lamb [-eaters] when they did eat meat.

Imam Sahl al-Tustari, one of the conditions when he took on students, one of the conditions he stipulated was that they ate meat once a week. In Maliki fiqh, a rich woman is entitled to meat twice a week. Muslims were semi-vegetarians. The prophet ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him) was a semi-vegetarian, he did not eat a lot of meat. This is a fact, you can read it in the seerah. Two months they would see no smoke came out of his chimney, and they would say, what were you eating? They said al-aswadayn, it's in the sahih collection, al-aswadayn, water and date.

Dates are one of the most beneficial foods in the world. So this is absolutely imperative that you change your diets. We're eating far too much processed foods, all of this cancer, one out of four people is getting cancer now. Heart disease, diabetes, 70% of the people in some of the Gulf States over 40 have type 2 diabetes. 70%. They're drinking, eating all this processed food. Cancer has become epidemic, in West Africa because they're eating all these processed foods. Eat fresh, healthy foods, eat good foods, this is part of our religion. Allah subḥānahu wa ta'āla (glorified and exalted be He) doesn't mention food without mentioning halal and tayyib. Make your food a source of nutrition. Don't eat empty food, don't eat too much food. Really. Eat twice a day. Sahl was asked, he said, what do you say about a man who eats once a day. He said, that's the way Prophets eat. He said what about twice a day? He said, that's the way righteous eat. And then he said what about three times a day? He said, build for them a trough. Build for them a trough.

- Sheikh Hamza Yusuf
May Allah protect Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and benefit us by him.