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WHAT SHALL WE DRINK?

Prof.Dr.Mustafa NUTKU

When you are in a cafe or restaurant, waiters ask you what you would like to drink and you tell him what your preference is.

In fact, the life itself is a preference.

I remember I saw a shop where they sold badges  with some famous saying or a proverb an done of those badges had the motto as “the biggest power of a person is the power to select”. This saying which belongs to a Westerner philosopher means as if the man has the absolute power and authority. However, the power of man is not real or absolute, it is figurative.

لا حَوْلَ وَلا قُوَّةَ اِلأّ بِاللَّه

The well-known Zikr in Islam “la hawla wala quwwata illa billahil aliyyil azim” explains the same thing. Man has trillions of cells where thousands of biochemical reactions ocur every second and he has no control on this working operation. Heart pumps the blood 7/24, blood circulates the body endlessly,, liver does the work of about 400 chemical factory, kidneys filter the waste and all other parts of body function as they are programmed. So can we say that the man orders and operates this mechanism by his own real power?

No creature possesses either ability or power over anything save through Allah, Who is Able and Capable. Hence the meaning of la hawla wala quwwata illa billah is the denial of one’s possession of autonomous power and ability, and the simultaneous confession of the existence of that (relative) power and ability to make choices that He has given His servants to be their own.

Because Allah  is the real doer (fail-i hakiki) ; as an exam, man is given a right to select or prefer.  Virtually it says “My servant, whichever way you wish to take with your will, I will take you there. In which case the responsibility is yours!” (Risale-i Nur Külliyâtı, 26th Words). Man prefers and he takes the responsibility in so doing.

Thus, we have to make a right decision and we have to bear in mind that we must prefer Halal foods and drinks. This is important especially because the weather is getting warm because of summer and the holy month of Ramadhan will cover the longest days of the year.

The best drink is water. Milk from various domestic animals, ayran, lemonade (the real home made one, not the synthetic), teas from different herbs, coffee, home made fruit syrups, fruit juices, nectars, mineral waters with gas are our famous drinks but as the industrialism expands, new products from different origins are spread widely among Muslims.  It is our responsibility to question the ingredients of any unknown drink and make sure it is Halal before consuming it.

In this regard, let’s look at the carbonated drinks like “gaseuse”, sodas etc.  these drinks may usually contains different aromas. Aromas are questionable from Halal point of view because ethyl alcohol is generally used to dissolve aromas.

Aromas are oil based products and they are mostly sold as dissolved in ethyl alcohol. There are other chemicals like propylene glycol that can be used instead of alhocol but some Muslim producers are not so much concerned as they have to be. Moreover, some so-called Ulamas give easy fatwahs that give permission for alcohol.

This means that aroma that is processed with ethyl alcohol is a critical substance and Muslims should stay away from any drink that contains aromas.
From a marketing point of view, multinational companies continously fight with traditional drinks and try to impose their products by giving the messages that “you can be happy”, “you can only quench your thirst if you drink this or that”, “you can get respect from others if you consume it”. They want us to believe that they are the cultural happiness bringers to our life. Even in Ramadan, they claim that if you drink their products, you will have more happiness etc.

However,  our traditional drinks have  proven themselves for safety for  centuries. Look at Ayran, Turkish natural drink made of yogurt. Our grand fathers and their ancestors consumed this healthy drinks for ages! Ayran is both healthy and nutritional.

Having said that we can’t be too careful these days. Some greedy people mix ayran with bicarbonate soda. This gives ayran more volume and make it look like creamy. Now more and more restaurants have started to imitate this tactic to make more Money.

Some other greedy businessmen collect unsold sour yogurts from markets and the add some lemon juice inside. And then they sell is as “lemonade ayran” in . This is pure deception.

Such people think that they deceive the customers, however they will understand that they have deceived themselves all along in the after life.