“Believers are ordered to eat permissible good food and be grateful to Allah (SWT) for providing it to them if they claim to be those who serve or worship only Him. Then a list of forbidden food is given.

1. Dead animals not slaughtered in the Islamic manner, because flesh of such animals could be poisonous and harmful due to decay.

2. Blood is harmful as food because it may contain disease germs and other harmful things. It is reported that incomplete bleeding (during slaughter) encourages the spread of bacteria, the better and more sanitary the bleeding, the better will be the keeping quality of meat (Food Microbiology by W.C. Frazier page 266. Tata Mc Growhill publishing Co. Ltd. New Delhi 1967) It is probably due to this reason that in the Islamic way of slaughtering an animal for food, it is made to die due to excessive bleeding which minimizes many agents of disease

3. Pork: Harmful organisms like Trichinella Spirales, Trichina Tenia, tapeworm etc. normally infest the flesh of swine and they cause serious diseases in persons who consume pork.

4. Eating something on which the name of someone or something other than Allah (SWT) is invoked, amounts to disloyalty to Him, leading to polytheism which is an unforgivable sin 4:48. These prohibitions are under normal circumstances but there could be abnormal occasions when one is forced to eat prohibited food, for instance, the case of a person who is hungry to such an extent that if he does not eat anything immediately he may die. Allah (SWT) forgives such acts of helpless persons out of mercy. At the same time, it is made clear that a believer should not eat prohibited food in normal circumstances just because of his desire for tasty food or to revolt against the order of Allah (SWT). Muslims are required to be within the limits imposed by Allah (SWT) and His messenger (PBH) 4:14, 9:112 as they have no choice in affairs decided by these two authorities 33:36.”