Quran 16:114 · An-Nahl

This verse relates to things which are eaten from day to day out of the eatable things created by God. All things are permissible (halal) with just a few exceptions. However, the ancient polytheists prohibited for themselves many things which were permissible. On the contrary, atheists have treated many things prohibited by God as being permissible for themselves. Both these approaches negate the spirit, which is intended to be developed in man through the bounties of food. Food is the most important of all man’s needs. It is a need which is experienced morning and evening. God desires that, whenever a man uses food, he should eat it considering it as a gift from God and he should be grateful to Him for it. But man has reversed the whole matter. In the ancient polytheistic period, they attributed these foods to false gods and in this way made it the means of remembering false gods instead of the one and only God. In the atheistic modern period, man having made the whole matter subject to his personal tastes, those things prohibited by God have been treated as permissible by him. This has resulted in the things created by God becoming mere foodstuffs to cater to his tastes at the dining table. If, under compulsion, anyone goes against the law of God regarding food, he should do it with a sense of shame and not with arrogance. In that way his mentality will be uncorrupted.