Transliteration:( Yaaa ayyuhal lazeena aamanoo kuloo min taiyibaati maa razaqnaakum washkuroo lillaahi in kuntum iyyaahu ta'budoon )
362. From this verse two issues emerge:
1. Like worship, eating and drinking when necessary is incumbent as the energy to fulfil our daily obligations is dependent on them.
2. One should consume wholesome and lawful food at all times. Taqwa - 'God Consciousness' does not mean to abstain from wholesome food - but Taqwa is based on abstention from all forbidden things.
363. Two issues emerge from this verse:
1.To express gratitude for receiving any bounty
is just as important as when getting an opportunity for worship, as seen from the use of commands in this verse - Hence the gratitude of every bounty will be equivalent to the bounty.
2. All the decrees are for the believers, therefore the discussion begins with 'O you who believe!' If the infidel wonders about eating anything it is of no consequence, the Islamic governors cannot force him to desist from it.
The tafsir of Surah Baqarah verse 171 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Baqarah ayat 170 which provides the complete commentary from verse 170 through 171.
170. The believers are told that if by having believed they have committed themselves to following the Law of God as they claim then they should abandon all taboos and prohibitions imposed by the pundits and priests, by the rabbis and church fathers, by the monks and recluses, and by their own forefathers. Although they were required to abstain from whatever had been prohibited by God, they ought to feel no compunction with regard to consuming all that He had permitted. This has also been alluded to in the saying of the Prophet reported in a Tradition in the following words: ‘Whoever prays in our manner, turns towards our qiblah (in Prayer), and eats (the flesh) of our slaughtered (animals), that person is Muslim. (Bukhari, ‘K. al-Salah’, 28; ‘K. al-Adahi’, 12; Muslim, ‘K. al-Adahi’, 6; Nasai, ‘K. al-lman’, 9; ‘K. al-Dahaya’, 17 – Ed.) This means that in spite of praying and facing towards the qiblah, a person is not fully assimilated into Islam as long as he maintains the pre-Islamic taboos in matters of eating and drinking and holds on to the fetters of superstition forged by the victims of Ignorance. A person’s adherence to these taboos is indicative of the fact that the poison of Ignorance continues to flow in his veins.
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