"Therefore, Let Man Ponder His Food" (Qur'ān 80:24) and the Portrayal of Food in the Qur'ān and Modern Arabic Poetry

Abstract

Abstract: Considered by Muslims to be the acme of literary excellence, the Qur'ān exhibits an uncanny predilection not only for its descriptions of food but more importantly for its portrayal of eating and drinking as a signifier for and means of establishing both worldly and eschatological success and happiness. It is partly upon this standard that food and foodways have been a significant topic of interest in both Islamic juridical and literary production, including poetical compositions in which food and the art of eating and drinking have become important motifs. To further explore this broad significance of food in Arab-Islamic culture and bring it into conversation with Arab literary modernism, this paper begins by exploring the Qur'ānic and Islamic juridical discourses surrounding food before turning to notable depictions of food in two poems by the poets Ḥāfiẓ Ibrāhīm (d. 1932) and Maʻrūf al-Ruṣāfī (d. 1945). The close reading of their works shows how pre-existing Arab-Islamic traditions about food intersect with modernity as well as how the category of food is constructed as a symbolic space for articulating human necessity and behavioral eccentricity. In the process of this discussion, this article brings into conversation discussions on food and foodways derived from diverse scholars such as Michel Foucault (d. 1984), Wahba al-Zuḥaylī (d. 2015), and Gillian Feeley-Harnik (b. 1940), among others.