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Gluttony and lust

The Benefits of Hunger​

Hunger has many benefits, which can be summarized in seven key points:

  1. Clarity of Heart and Insight: Hunger enhances mental clarity and insight, while excessive eating can dull the mind and heart.
  2. Softness of Heart: Hunger softens the heart, making one more receptive to the pleasure of connecting with Allah through remembrance and worship.
  3. Humility and Ego Control: Hunger humbles the ego, reducing arrogance and self-importance. Nothing suppresses the ego like hunger, which also helps prevent heedlessness of Allah, thereby opening the gate to happiness.
  4. Increased Compassion: Hunger leads to an appreciation of others' struggles and inspires compassion and generosity. The full stomach often forgets the pain of hunger, whereas the hungry empathize with those in need.
  5. Control Over Desires: Hunger helps break other desires, which are often the root of disobedience, and tames the ego.
  6. Energy for Worship: Hunger reduces the body's heaviness, making staying awake for night prayers and other worship easier.
  7. Simplicity and Financial Ease: Hunger reduces dependence on material wealth, fostering contentment with less and helping one to embrace simplicity.

How to Reduce Eating​

If you wish to eat less, consider focusing on three factors: amount, time, and type of food.

  • Amount: Practice mindful eating by slowing down, appreciating the blessing of food, and aiming for satisfaction with less. Try to decrease the amount of food to a few "mudd" or less daily. The unit of measurement used here is "mudd," which is the equivalent of what can be held in one hand or a small bowl. Limit consumption to the amount of "mudd" needed to maintain health and clarity.
  • Time: Reduce the frequency of eating.
  • Type: Choose simpler foods when possible. For instance, wheat bread with condiments is the highest form of simplicity, while barley bread without condiments is the most basic and highly preferred choice. To apply this, try to select simpler food options when available.

How to Combat the Desires of the Private Parts​

  • First, you should lower the gaze (from looking at forbidden things and other women); this can be practiced by avoiding any content with a high probability of filth and by not fantasizing. Also, you should not talk to non-mahram (marriageable) women unless necessary (avoiding small talk), and you should steer clear of any step that could get you closer to Zina.
  • Second, you must marry as early as possible, provided you can be financially independent early in your life or your condition allows you to. If you cannot, make sure to fast regularly and to perfect it. And if you cannot, reduce your food consumption as much as possible.
  • Third, you need to concentrate on what preoccupies the heart. The only way appetite can leave the heart is through unsettling fear or restless yearning. As a result, you need to ensure you're applying their processes.

If you persist on sin, refer to the section 'Overcoming the Habit of Sin' in the Repentance initiative.

note

Techniques that only alter the external environment or make sins harder to access address only the surface of the problem. However, they may be beneficial if used with the abovementioned approach.