Why Vegan?

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.

Cruel cage free farming
“Cage-Free”. Worst conditions possible.
  • 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.

Mercy is a universal language

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?

Like, comment and/or share – we welcome your feedback, questions and criticisms.

 

This article has 16 Comments

  1. I had two social gatherings this weekend, organized by Muslims, and both left me feeling lonely and frustrated. All the so-called halal meat laid out on the tables.. it is flabbergasting for me that more Muslims don’t make these very logical and seamless connections. Even when they do (it’s nearly impossible to not know what happens at dairy and meat factory farms now) there is tremendous apathy. No matter the glaring contradiction to basic Islamic principles.

    Thank you very much for writing this. The comfort and reassurance I felt whilst reading it is indescribable. A million thanks.

  2. So grateful to the Lord for going vegan and finding this website!
    Thank you for your job. May Allah bless you for helping to create a better world??

  3. Sammer you are doing great work. There is a lot of ignorance in our Muslim community and it is good to see people like you bringing some light into the darkness of factory farming and animal abuse. May Allah bless you and give yo great success.

  4. Sammer, may Allah and The Prophet bless you in your efforts to raise awareness on this subject matter. I believe you have truly understood Islam with some of the points you make.

  5. Awesome post Sammer!

    Leading a vegan lifestyle is the way at this day and age. It’s such a shame how people treat animals nowadays when there’s no reason for it whatsoever, it’s not like we have a shortage of food or what to wear.

    Going vegan was one of the best choices I made.

    Inshallah muslims find this website and get proper education on how their choices influence this planet, its inhabitants and their own health.

    Looking forward to your next post! 🙂

    Salam

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