the light of qur'an,sura al-baqarah,quran,tafsir

section 21.

only lawful and clean food should be taken

injunction about the use of food-stuff  blind following disallowed.
concealing of truth and corrupting the word of god and bartering it for
worldly gains amounts to the eating of fire.

168." o' mankind! eat of what is in the earth lawful and good;
and do not follow the footsteps of satan.
surely he is a manifest foe for you."
169. " verily, he (satan) enjoins you evil acts and indecency and that you
should speak against allah what you know not."

commentary:

one of the signs of a complete religion is that it considers the
usage of the unlawful food-stuffs a satanic deed (as the qur'an says:
"...intoxicants and games of chance... are an abomination of satan's
work...") 1, and the inappropriate avoidance of eating the lawful ones
originated from the temptations of satan, (as the qur'an says: "...eat of
what allah has given you and do not follow the footsteps of satan..."). 2
therefore, in the current verse, too, it says:

" o' mankind! eat of what is in the earth lawful and good; and do not
follow the footsteps of satan. ..."

in some of the historical narrations it is cited that a few of the
arab tribes had unreasonably forbidden a part of their crops and their
animals for themselves, where they used to sometimes attribute those
prohibitions to allah. then, the above verse was revealed to dismiss
that ambiguity.

islam pays also specific attention to the material life of people. at
the top of these things is the food necessities about which there are
found tens of qur'anic verses and hundreds of traditions in islamic
literature.

one of the duties of prophets has been to define the lawful and
unlawful edible materials and drinks beside the introduction of the
advantages and disadvantages of each of them. this verse emphasizes
that we have to consume from what is religiously lawful and pure /halal/
on the earth:

" o' mankind! eat of what is in the earth lawful and good;..."

and that we must not prohibit ourselves from some things under
the effect of the satan's temptation, because it is certain that satan is
our open enemy:

"...and do not follow the footsteps of satan. surely he is
a manifest foe for you."

imam baqir (a.s.) has narrated a tradition from the prophet
(p.b.u.h.) who said: " worship of allah is divided into seventy divisions, the
best of which is earning a living lawfully." 3

again, in another tradition, the very holy imam, the fifth imam,
(a.s) has said: " he who seeks for sustenance in this world in order to be
independent of people for his needs, to provide for his family members, and
to stretch affection unto his neighbours, will meet allah, almighty and
glorious, on the day of judgement while his face will be as bright as the full
moon." 4

* * * *

it is cited in tafsir-i-rouh-ul-bayan that satan has some different
stages in his invitations unto temptations. at first, he invites to
infidelity. if he fails in this phase, he invites to innovation. if he does
not succeed, he invites to lesser sins. failing in these stages, satan
invites to doing good and lawful deeds instead of worshipping allah.
when he fails in this phase, too, he invites to performing worships with
lower qualities than the noble ones in order to stop a person from
promoting to higher degrees. 5

thus, the statement of the verse is a warning against what satan
does and how he leads men astray by his different forms of evil whispers
when the qur'an says:

" verily, he (satan) enjoins you evil acts and indecency and that you
should speak against allah what you know not."

1 sura al-ma'idah, no. 5, verse 90
2 sura al-'an`am, no. 6. verse 142
3 tafsir al-burhan, vol.1p. 173
4 al-kafi, vol. 5, p.78
5 tafsir-i-rouh-ul-bayan, vol. 1, p. 272