Question

1. What was the diet of Nabi (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam)?

2. Did Nabi (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) eat meat often?

3. Are there any Hadiths that mention meat in particular?

 

Answer

Here are the brief answers to your questions followed by some detail about meat, specifically.

1. The diet of Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) consisted of basically whatever halal food was available.

Imams Ghazali and Sha’rani (rahimahumallah) have mentioned that Nabi (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) would eat whatever was presented to him. This ranged from roasted meat to coarse barley bread and dates without any sort of fuss. They have also stated that most of the time, he (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) would consume dates and water.

(Muntahas Sul, vol. 2, pg. 9 and pg. 105).

2. No.

3. Yes.

Meat on very rare occasions

Poverty and hunger were common place in the home of our beloved Nabi (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam). When inspecting the Hadiths of this topic, one would easily understand that -due to poverty- Nabi (sallallahu ’alayhi wa sallam) hardly consumed meat.

Sayyidatuna ‘Aishah (radiyallahu ‘anha) said: “Months passed wherein we never lit a single flame in our home (i.e., to cook food). Our only provisions were dates and water unless we received bits of meat.” (Sahih Bukhari, Hadith: 6458)

In one narration of Sunan Tirmidhi, Sayyidah ‘Aishah (radiyallahu ‘anha) states that one reason why Nabi (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) relished the meat of the shoulder was due to Nabi (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) only having meat on rare occasions, and the shoulder was the quickest part to get cooked. (Sunan Tirmidhi, Hadith: 1838)

[Note: This is one of a few recorded reasons]

The above clearly shows that the diet of our Nabi (sallallahu ’alayhi wa sallam) consisted mainly of dates and water, and that he would only consume meat occasionally.

The different types of meat consumed by Nabi (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam)

Some ‘Ulama have endeavoured to enumerate the different types of meat that Rasulullah (sallallahu ’alayhi wa sallam) consumed.

’Allamah Salihi Ash-Shami (rahimahullah) -a reliable biographer of the seerah- has cited a list of such meat. Among them are the following:

Sheep, Goats, Camels, Chickens, Bustard birds, Zebras, Rabits, Partridge/Bob white birds, as well as sea fish.

‘Allamah Kashimiri (rahimahullah) has stated that Nabi (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) also ate beef on several occasions [One such occasion is recorded in Sahih Bukhari, Hadith: 3089].

(Subulul Huda war Rashad, vol. 7, pg. 192. Also see Zadul Ma’ad, vol. 1, pg. 142, Faydul Bari, vol. 3, pg. 459 & Sahih Bukhari, Hadith: 3089)

Note: The above is merely a discussion about meat in the diet of our Beloved Master (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam).

There are various types of grains and other foods that he (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) ate too. Refer the last two references cited above for more details.

 

And Allah Ta’ala Knows best,

Answered by: Mawlana Muhammad Abasoomar

Checked by: Mawlana Haroon Abasoomar