ভূমিকা
Verily I know best what you do.” We should not forget two important principles, when we want to eat something: Lawfulness Purity and wholesomeness All divinely revealed religions give great importance to the kinds of food we eat for they bring Divine succor in doing good deeds. It is for this very reason that, addressing all the messengers, Allah says: “O messengers! Eat of the good things and act righteously.
Verily I know best what you do.” The difference between prophets and other human beings is not that they do not have human needs such as the need for food rather they see special modes of nutrition as means towards perfection, therefore they eat pure and wholesome food.
The average person eats as an aim in itself, pursuing the satisfaction of his animal desires whether it is good or bad, he is not even concerned about the physical benefits of his diet not to mention the spiritual effects the foods might have upon him.
Regarding that the kind and quality of food is certainly effective on man’s spiritualities, and different sorts of food consequence different moral manners, the relation between these two sentences are made clear when it says: “...Eat of the good things” and “Act righteously...” Some Islamic traditions say that eating unlawful food hinders our prayers and supplications to be accepted.
There is a famous tradition stated by the Prophet (S) which is the evidence of this claim: A man once told the Prophet (S) that he would like his prayers to be answered.
The Prophet replied: “Make your food wholesome and refrain from eating unlawful food!” [^1] Commenting on this verse, Imam Sadiq (as) says: “The meaning of /tayyib/ is lawfulness.” [^2] In this context it is also necessary to note that the sentence: “...verily I know best what you do, ” is itself an independent reason for doing good deeds, because when man knows that someone is always watching his deeds and nothing remains hidden from Him and Who carefully reckons his deeds, he will be careful to act correctly and reform his behaviour.