Ihya Ulum al-Din, Book 11: The Etiquette of Eating

The Etiquette of Eating is Book 11 of al-Ghazālī’s Revival of the Religious Sciences, and the door into the Second Quarter, The Customs of Daily Life.

The first thing most of us do after the morning prayer is eat. This book asks whether that, too, was worship. Ten books taught a Muslim how to stand before God. This one follows him to the table. There is no religion without knowledge and works, no works without a sound body, no sound body without food — so the meal is a link in a chain that ends in the meeting with God.

Al-Ghazālī sets the manners of eating alone and in company, the shared dish, the guest and the host, and the whole course of a feast from invitation to the third day. Before marriage, trade or travel comes the act every one of them shares: a table, and someone at it.

This English is taken from the classical Arabic of the Iḥyāʾ, not rebuilt from an older translation. It can be read straight through, or studied beside the original.

Read it in an afternoon. Eat your next meal differently.