The first thing many Muslims emotionally tell me when they learn I do not eat animal products is “You’re making what is halal, haram!”.

There are a number of problems with this statement.

• The assumption one must eat animals for their Islam to be valid

• I’ve never claimed nor will I claim such a thing.

• The assumption is today’s animal products are halal and tayyib (or pure and wholesome), which they are not.

• Justification of an addiction and bad habits

It is not enough for us to simply look up statements in our texts and selectively apply them to suit our modern day conditioning.

We are indoctrinated from an early age animals are here for our use, pleasure and amusement (please explain dinosaurs) and as a result, we are indifferent to their suffering.

We see a verse or hadith and that’s it; we do not want to look beyond it or think critically about our responsibilities today.

We don’t want to consider the fact most of the Prophet’s diet was plant based and he rarely ate meat. We don’t want to fast 11 days of every month, walk miles every day, not fill our stomachs or any of the other things the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did.

No, we just laser in on some select texts and think the case is closed.

I decided to go vegan from both an ethical and health perspective.

After learning what happens to God’s creatures – chickens, cows, sheep, pigs, turkeys, ducks and more; in these “factory farms” and outside it, it would be highly irresponsible of me NOT to make this decision.

Every animal product you buy whether it’s “free range”, “organic” or otherwise directly contributes to polluting our natural resources as well as your health.

Most importantly, these animals suffer unspeakable cruelty and most people are heedless to what actually goes on in these chambers of torture and death.

These animals are sentient beings. They have feelings. They are aware. They have families but they are treated like their lives don’t matter.

How can one watch what these creatures go through and not feel a deep sense of shame, remorse and compassion for them?

Are you aware they know exactly what’s coming and many of them try to escape and are under tremendous amounts of physical and mental stress?

We are supposed to be caretakers and guardians of not just the planet but the oppressed and the weak. There has been no more brutality and barbarity visited upon any beings in the history of the world more than what humans have done to animals. It even dwarfs what humans have even done to each other.

Billions upon billions of them, specifically bred, cruelly raised and savagely killed for our gluttonous addictions and we wonder why we are plagued by so much misery and illness.

My health skyrocketed after eating a whole foods plant based diet.

No more ailments, no more congestion, no more chest pains during exercise and no more of many other symptoms people go through just accepting it’s part of “getting old”.

That’s complete nonsense – the physical problems you are experiencing right now, accidents aside, are as a result of what you’ve been putting into your body.

What have your experiences been like since going vegan? Family/friends reactions?

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