The Call to Eat of the Good Things

Occasion: A transcription of the evening lecture "Calls to Faith in the Qur’an," delivered at AIA on March 31, 2026Source: A transcription of a video lecture by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Note on the text: The automatic transcript of this lecture is short and garbled, consisting mostly of repeated verses, and the speaker's explanation in it is sparse and fragmentary. This text is therefore limited to what was clearly heard, and nothing has been added to it.

He began by invoking blessings and peace upon the servant of Allah, His Prophet and Messenger, our master and Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and then made supplication: "I ask Allah, glorified and exalted, to accept from us and from you righteous deeds, to forgive us and you our slips, to bless us in the good things He has granted us, to free us from our faults, to purify our inner selves, and to preserve what is in our hands of good things. O Allah, amen, Lord of the worlds."

The Call Concerning Food

Then he mentioned the calls to faith, and recited:

﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُلُوا مِن طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِلَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ إِيَّاهُ تَعْبُدُونَ﴾ [البقرة] (O you who believe, eat of the good things We have provided for you, and give thanks to Allah, if it is Him you worship) [al-Baqarah]

He repeated it, and paused at "the good things" and repeated it.^[1]

The People and the Believers

Then he recited another call, addressed to the people, and joined the two forms of address: "O people," "O you who believe":

﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ كُلُوا مِمَّا فِي الْأَرْضِ حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ﴾ [البقرة] (O people, eat of what is on the earth, lawful and good, and do not follow the footsteps of Satan) [al-Baqarah]

Lawful and Forbidden

He repeated "lawful… forbidden… lawful… forbidden," and recited: «احل لهم الطيبات وحرم عليهم الخبائث» (He makes lawful for them the good things and forbids them the foul things) (as in the transcript, without vowel marks), and paused at "the good things" and at "the foul things."^[2] Then he repeated: "of the good things We have provided you," and the phrase "of what is on the earth," and repeated: ﴿كُلُوا مِمَّا فِي الْأَرْضِ حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ﴾ (eat of what is on the earth, lawful and good, and do not follow the footsteps of Satan).

Then he said in English, in meaning: nobody is being asked to beat people, or to lie, or to walk a wrong path; rather, everyone is asked to walk in the right direction. He likened that to traveling on the road, "you know the traffic," and the rest of the sentence is cut off.^[3]

The Meal for Which God Is Praised

And he mentioned the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ: «إنَّ اللهَ لَيَغْفِرُ لِلْعَبْدِ يَأْكُلُ الْأَكْلَةَ فَيَحْمَدُهُ عَلَيْهَا» (Indeed Allah forgives the servant who eats a meal and praises Him for it).^[4]

Then he repeated: ﴿وَاشْكُرُوا لِلَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ إِيَّاهُ تَعْبُدُونَ﴾ (and give thanks to Allah, if it is Him you worship).

Two Other Calls

Then he said: ﴿لَا تَقُولُوا رَاعِنَا وَقُولُوا انظُرْنَا وَاسْمَعُوا﴾ [البقرة] (Do not say "Rā‘inā," but say "Unẓurnā," and listen) [al-Baqarah], and "seek help through patience and prayer,"^[5] and he said the word "legislation," then returned at the end of his talk to: "Eat of the good things We have provided you."

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: After the verse, the transcript contains a truncated English phrase (translation) and repeated words from which nothing could be made out. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The transcript has «احل لهم الطيبات وحرم عليهم الخبائث» without naming the sūrah, so it is set between quotation marks and not between the verse brackets. Its meaning is close to the words of the Exalted: ﴿وَيُحِلُّ لَهُمُ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَيُحَرِّمُ عَلَيْهِمُ الْخَبَائِثَ﴾ [al-A‘rāf: 157] (He makes lawful for them the good things and forbids them the foul things); this identification is the editor's. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The English wording is garbled ("nobody being asked to beating the people… right direction… moral direction… the traffic just for the…"), and the meaning given is an understanding of it; the word "moral" is not certain. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: This is the wording of the transcript as heard, "layaghfiru." The well-known wording in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim is «إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَيَرْضَى عَنِ الْعَبْدِ أَنْ يَأْكُلَ الْأَكْلَةَ فَيَحْمَدَهُ عَلَيْهَا، أَوْ يَشْرَبَ الشَّرْبَةَ فَيَحْمَدَهُ عَلَيْهَا» (Indeed Allah is pleased with the servant who eats a meal and praises Him for it, or drinks a drink and praises Him for it); the passage should be checked against the audio to know what the speaker actually said. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ﴾ [al-Baqarah: 153] (O you who believe, seek help through patience and prayer); the identification is the editor's. In Sūrat al-Baqarah these calls come in the order 104, then 153, then 172, and it is not clear from the transcript how the speaker connected them. All the verse numbers in the body text are the editor's (al-Baqarah: 104, 168, 172).