In the light of the Holy Hadith

Stay hungry to be healthy

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said – “The son of Adam cannot fill a vessel worse than his stomach, as it is enough for him to take a few bites to straighten his back. If he cannot do it, then he may fill it with a third of his food, a third of his drink, and a third of his breath”. (Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith – 2380)

Dear readers,
Explaining the above hadith, Ibn al-Haaj said: Eating in and of itself falls into different categories: obligatory, recommended, permissible, disliked and forbidden. Obligatory is that which will keep him going so that he can fulfill his obligatory duties towards his Lord, because that which is essential to doing something obligatory is also obligatory. Recommended is that which will help him to do naafil acts of worship, acquire knowledge and do other acts of obedience. Permissible is that which enables one to fill one’s stomach in the manner prescribed in shari’a. Disliked is that which is a little more than is enough to fill the stomach but does not harm one. And forbidden is eating a great deal that is harmful to the body.

You may know that the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 2016 was given to Professor Yoshinori Ohsumi of Japan for discovering the mechanisms of autophagy, which is the process for utilizing and recycling unnecessary or dysfunctional cellular components that get accumulated in our cells. This has scientifically substantiated that fasting is, in fact, good for our health. Intermittent fasting helps in resting our digestive system and energizes our metabolism to burn calories more efficiently. It also improves our bowel functions by regulating the body’s digestion.

Fasting has shown an immense impact on improving the brain’s function by boosting the production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF. This protein is responsible for activating brain stem cells to convert into new neurons, and trigger various other chemicals that promote neural health and ward off diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. So let’s stay hungry according to the Hadith mentioned above to be healthy mentally and physically.