Question:
Dearest Shaykh, Assalamu alaykum,
Wishing you well from the bottom of my heart. Please could you tell me what to recite etc as I wish to be free of being like an animal.
I like tasty food very much since childhood, but I also take anti-psychotic medication (without which I can’t survive my manic depression, I feel) which makes me feel very hungry and I do not feel satisfaction from eating unless I overeat. I fear Allah, but not enough, I would say, regarding becoming ill from overeating and wish to gain control over my overeating. Please could I ask you humbly to advise this poor, female, wretched animal-like mureed, who should feel even more ashamed of not having more self-control? Thank you.
Answer:
The cure for eating too much is to develop three traits: to listen, to look and to think:
1) learn to listen to your heart and your conscience. They will send signals when to stop.
2) look at how much you have already eaten,
3) consider what will happen if you eat more… according to the hadith, “we are a people who do not eat until we are hungry and when we eat we don’t eat our fill.”
All this will be developed by learning to do rabitah, connection with your Shaykh insha-Allah. See How to Make Rabitah.
Recite 100x before each meal laa hawla wa laa quwatta illa billah il-`aliyyi’l-`azheem.
Before eating read the Du`a of eating, the invocation for eating of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim.
Be sure to consult with your personal physician in any form of dieting or food reduction.
w ‘Allahu `alam,
Taher Siddiqui
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