Islamic Law Regarding Pork

Supplement

QUESTION:

And what is the parasite 'Paragonimus' ?

ANSWER:

This parasite lives in the lungs of pigs. It was discovered by Dr. Mason in 1880. lt is a common parasite which causes pneumonia in pigs. There is still no way of killing the paraisite in the tissues, neither has anyone found a method of expelling them. The epidemiology of the resulting is jaundice.

QUESTION:

Now we come to 'Clonorchis Sinesis.'

ANSWER:

This parasite was discovered by Cobbold (1875) and Looss (1907).

Clonorchis Sinesis is a sucking worm, a kind of parasite which inhabits the bile passage of pigs' liver, which is a source of these parasites infecting people in close contact with pigs. The occurrence of the disease in China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Southern India and Vietnam again points to the close association with pigs.

This parasite creates many serious diseases of liver and chest in human beings.

QUESTION:

What are those diseases?

ANSWER:

If this parasite is present in the lungs, it may cause pneumonia; if it is in the air tubes it causes suffocation and if in the intestines it causes intestinal obstruction, or acute pancreatitis.

Then there is Clonorchiasis, a peculiar liver disease. The liver becomes enlarged accompanied with severe jaundice, diarrhoea and emaciation; it may end fatally. Medical science, in spite of its strenuous efforts, has not yet been able to produce any specific treatment for it. Complications in the disease are stone formation in the liver and cancer.

QUESTION:

Are there any more diseases connected with pork

ANSWER:

Yes. There are "Erysipelas" and "Endemic Haemptysis" (i.e. Bleeding of the Lungs), and "Brucellosis" (i.e. Swine Abortion

QUESTION:

What is "Erysipelas" ?

ANSWER:

This disease is caused by the germ "Erysipelothrix Rhusiopathiae." This disease occurs in acute and chronic forms. The symptom of the acute form are chiefly high fever and reduced activity and appetite. It usually brings rapid death. Chronic Erysipelas causes sloughing of diomond-shaped areas of skin. and there is residual damage to the joint surfaces and the heart valves which may result in lameness and/or sudden death.

The details may be seen in Chambers Encyclopaedia (New Revised Edition 1968), vol.10 under 'Pig' and in the American People's Encyclopaedia, (1960) vol.15 under 'Pig'.

QUESTION:

And what is its connection with pig?

ANSWER:

According to the Chambers Encyclopaedia, this bacteria "can survive for long period in the soil and is also found in the body of some 30% of all healthy pigs. Thus eradication is impossible and overt disease is not a simple matter of infection."

And what is more troublesome is the fact that the same bacteria causes the same disease in human beings. Thus anybody eating pork taken from even a "healthy pig" is in danger of the above-mentioned diseases and death. The said Encyclopaedia says that "the same organism (i.e. germ) causes'erasipeloid' in man."

QUESTION:

Now I see the wisdom of the Islamic law forbidding pork; in fact, I am very much alarmed .

ANSWER:

As I told you earlier, it means bleeding of lung. This disease is quite common in China, Japan, Taiwan and countries where the consumption of pork is predominant.

Patients having this infection suffer from cough with rusty sputum and have repeated attacks of profuse bleeding of the lungs; disease in countries where human beings live in close association with pigs clearly shows that this animal is the reservoir of infection. The disease is, however, absent from countries where pigs are rare.

QUESTION:

And what is the 'Swine Abortion'?

ANSWER

Its scientific name is 'Brucellosis.' The American People's Encyclopaedia (vol.15, please, now explain Endemic under 'Pig') says:

"Brucellosis or swine abortion is important not only because of hog losses, but also because the disease may be contacted by man. In the hog, brucellosis causes abortion and sterility. The disease is difficult to diagnose and practically impossible to cure. Disposal of infected animals is recommended."

In short, the pig, the supreme germ carrier, is the cause of many serious and fatal diseases, among them, dysentry, thrichinosis, tapeworm, roundworm, hookworm, jaundice, pneumonia, suffocation, intestinal obstruction, acute pancreatitis, enlargement of liver, diarrhoea, emaciation, stone formation in liver, cancer, anaemia, high fever, hindrance of growth development in children, typhoid, lameness, heart trouble, abortion, sterility, and sudden death.

I do not know of any other animal carrying so many and so deadly bombs to wreck the human body.

QUESTION:

Now I am fully convinced that pork is not a food, but a package of poisons. Still, I have heard

many people saying that now-a-days pigs are raised in hygienic conditions and fed clean food, and that they are quite different from their fore-fathers who ate human dirt and soil; and that their meat is not a danger to health.

ANSWER: All the statements of the doctors quoted above are about those very pigs who are raised in hygienic conditions and still carry the germs. Those are the findings of recent times based on experiences of modern pig-raising.

And still you must have marked such statements as follows:

"Balantidium Coli is extremely common in swine. Recent surveys reveal an incidence of 21 to 100 per cent."

"It is only in pig-raising countries that ths disease is common."

"One in six people in U. S. A. and Canada that have worms in their muscles from eating pork."

"No one is immune from this disease and there is no cure. Neither antibiotics nor drugs or vaccines effect these tiny deadly worms."

"There is still no way of killing the parasite (Paragonimus) in the tissues, neither has anyone found a method of expelling them."

"Medical science, in spite of its strenuous efforts, has not yet been able to produce any specific treatment for it (Clonorchiasis)."

"'Erysipelothix' is found in the body of some 30% all healthy pigs. Thus eradication is impossible."

Today, all pig farms are run on so-called hygienic principles. But still the result is the same as it was centuries earlier.

Still, let us, for the sake of discussion, accept that a time may come (in distant future, perhaps) when drugs may be found to counteract the ill-effects of the germs and parasites carried by pigs. But even then it will not sanction the use of pork as a diet, just as discovery of snake-bite serums does not sanction our putting our finger in the mouth of a cobra.

CONCLUSION

I am really very much perturbed by these observations. l find that there is Truth in what you have said. l agree that pork is extremely harmful to the health, no matter how hygienic the conditions in which pigs are kept now-a-days .

I promise that from now on I will never take pork, bacon or anything connected with pig. I know that breaking a habit is a very difficult thing; but I hope that by my strong will and the help of God I will succeed in my resolution .

ANSWER:

Yes. I am sure, God's help will always be available to you if you genuinely want to obey His Command. May God Be With You.

THE END