Isrāf
Definition
Israf is excess in consumption — eating beyond what the body needs, spending on food beyond what is appropriate, or indulging in luxury while others go without. Al-Ghazali quotes the Quranic prohibition of israf and applies it to the table: the Muslim who habitually overeats is not only harming the body but corrupting the heart. Fullness dulls the intellect, weights the limbs for worship, hardens the heart toward the spiritual, and opens the appetite for every other form of excess. The prophetic prescription — filling one third of the stomach with food, one third with water, one third with air — is a medical and spiritual prescription simultaneously.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
Appears in
2 books in the library
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