The greatest destructive source for the human being is the appetite of the belly; it was the reason for the expulsion of Adam  and Eve from the abode of eternal comfort to the abode of humiliation and impoverish-ment. They were prohibited from eating from the tree but their lust overcame them, they ate from it and their private parts become manifest as a result. The belly is certainly the spring of lusts and a fertile ground for diseases and calamities. For it is followed by the lust for sex and extreme longing for copulation. The desire for food and sex is then followed by extreme aspiration for status and wealth, which are means for more food and sex. Excessive wealth and status are then followed by different kinds of frivolous behaviour and various forms of rivalries and resentful envies towards others. Then between them is born the defect of showing off, boasting and arrogance. This in turn leads to grudges, resentful envy, animosity and hatred. These will then prompt the person to engage in oppression, wrongdoing and immorality, all of which are the results of neglecting the belly and what is generated of it in terms of the overbearingness of satiation and being full. Had the servant of Allah abased himself through hunger and narrowed Satan’s channels, his self would have submitted to the obedience of Allah Most High, and would have neither taken the route of insolence and aggression nor dragged to immersion in this world, preferring this fleeting and immediate world over the life to come, being utterly avid for this world.

Animals eat to survive. Human beings, in addition to eating to live, eat to socialise or relieve stress, as there is compulsive eating, all of which lead to physical and psychological health problems. Imām al-Ghazālī is right, the appetite for food may be destructive if it becomes out of control. He starts by referring to how human history began with eating from the Forbidden Tree. Adam and Eve could have enjoyed eating in the Garden for eternity if it were not for consuming what they should not have consumed. Transgression is what had removed them from their state of felicity.

Excessive and compulsive behaviour in food consumption leads to diseases and other problems, including an increased libido. Lust for food and sex may lead to seeking power and money to satisfy these two desires. Negative competition for money and status will ensue, and bad conduct will follow, including boastful behaviour, which is an egotistic problem. Egotism leads to negative feelings and emotions, including resentful envy, hatred and animosity. And these in turn will manifest themselves in the form of real conflicts, the hallmark of injustice, crime and sin.

When Imām al-Ghazālī advocates narrowing the channels or pathways of Satan, he is drawing on the Prophetic Sunnah. The ḥadīth literature shows that the worst receptacle ever filled by any human being is his belly. The Prophetic ideal of maximum eating, if one has to, is one third for food, one third for water and one third air, so that one can breathe.

The Prophet

ate in moderation, when food was available, but would subsist for a long time on water and dates as his main staple. In another tradition, the Prophet

said: ‘O young men! Whoever can afford to get married should do so. And whoever cannot do so should fast, for that is his protection [against fornication].’

Allah invites us to enjoy lawful food and drink, and to be clean and adorn ourselves, especially when visiting mosques: O children of Adam, take your adornment at every masjid, and eat and drink, but be not excessive. Indeed, He likes not those who commit excess. (Qur’ān 7:31)

40. Al-Ghazālī, Iḥyā’ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, edited by Sulaymān Dunyā, Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, vol. 3, p. 80.

38 Excessive Appetite for Food Unleashes Destructive Forces

40. Al-Ghazālī, Iḥyā’ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, edited by Sulaymān Dunyā, Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, vol. 3, p. 80.