What if it didn’t?
What if food in general wasn’t a source of pleasure?
What if it was painful?
How merciful God is to make our source of sustenance be a source of pleasure too! He is so good to us that He took something necessary for our survival and made it pleasureful too. Imagine having to masticate something that we found no pleasure in, and needing to do so multiple times a day, just in order to be able to function and have enough energy to go about our daily business! Food could have been just a means to an end, eat to energize- but instead we eat for pleasure. Rare is it that we think of our food only as a source of energy for us. Rare is it that we measure how many joules of energy this or that food will give us. Instead we ingest what will bring us the most pleasure. Imagine if we had to do this monotonous thing, day in and day out, multiple times a day, only for it to be something we dread- something that pains us. Mastication is already strenuous and takes effort, imagine if there was no immediate gratification for the effort! The arduous act of chewing coupled with delicious tasting wonders, only One greater than us could have been so kind and gentle.
And what a mercy it is that we do have to masticate! How He allows us to savor our food- How He allows us time to enjoy it in our mouth before it enters our system to give us necessary energy. What a mercy it is that He allows us time during chewing for our bodies to decide when it is time to stop eating. What a mercy that we are able to chew to make it easier on our weak bodies to digest the means of energy- How He is the source of that energy.
And how amazing it is to think of the life of your food. How that slice of watermelon I just savored was always meant just for me. The fact that He set aside my provision in that watermelon when my book was written and made that watermelon come to be, and then brought to me…awe inspiring. (and to think that my watermelon, is in a complete state of God consciousness, and in praise of Him- How can I do anything but praise Him for making my food praise Him too- How can i do anything but give thanks when what I am eating is praising Him- it would be wholly unnatural and inorganic!)
SO give thanks for your food- but give thanks for its deliciousness because in that is a blessing and mercy too!
Oh Allah, so few thanks do we offer and how many are due- Make us mindful of your mercy. Make us mindful of Your un-enumerable blessings, and gift us the intellect to recognize You in these things! ameen.
These Attractions
from Maarif Bahauddin
1:144-145I was saying Glory to God and the inner meaning of that came to me. If you desire elegance, the perfection of it is in the presence of God. The same with wealth, authority, dignity, sama, and sohbet. All of these reach perfection inside the mystery. Whatever we love in this visible world, we are sure to discover its flaws.
We grow more alive, more perfect, when we take these attractions into the presence. Let them live inside our being drawn there. Every pleasure of light, color, taste, touch, fragrance and sound becomes filled with out remembering. We go light-hearted, high spirited (37:99). Even when I fear going there, I am held, kissed, and bathed in the luster.
Now I begin repeating Allahu Akbar, God is great, and I see the beauty of the visible forms of that greatness, physical strength, banners, a mountain cliff. Likewise, when I [do dthikr,] that conversation becomes a spring wind turning dead ground into roses, water running by, word of a friend’s arrival. Saying praise together out loud brings into being a key that opens the heart.
