Obesity

By: Swaleh Arif

In the name of Allah, The most beneficent, The most Merciful.

One of my great uncles once remarked to an overweight woman that God didn’t like fat people. Needless to say she was reduced to tears. Then she lamented, “But how can that be? He’s the one that made me this way!”. He defended his comment by pointing out that overweight people were generally lazy in worship.1

As cruel as this statement may be, it does hold some truth in it. Imam Ghazali (may Allah have mercy on him) once quoted, “A full stomach fattens the body, hardens the heart, dulls the intellect, and renders man lazy in worship.”2

However, can someone still be obese and appear physically normal at the same time? As much as this world is physical, it is metaphysical as well. It’s unfortunate how most people have solely focused on the material and ignored the immaterial, thereby creating an imbalance that has caused a negative impact on a global scale.

To answer my question, yes it’s possible. This is achieved through what I’d like to call ‘mental obesity’. It’s similar to physical obesity in the sense that it involves the consumption of filth and junk.Once you notice the similarity, it’s easy to draw parallels between the physical and metaphysical aspects of obesity.

As much as I’d like to explore and elaborate these aspects, I’m inclined at the moment to simply explain how people unwittingly (or deliberately) subject themselves to this illness. As I mentioned above, it pertains to the consumption of filthy and unhealthy material. However, I’ll ignore the physical aspect because it’s quite obvious what it’s causes are i.e. junk food, lack of exercise and so forth.

When it comes to mental obesity, it’s a bit tricky to employ a measurement of scale, unlike physical obesity that can be measured by the use of Body Mass Index (BMI), among others. This is because the full negative impact it creates on the mind and soul is often hidden from the naked eye and it’ll take time and keen analysis to actually make an approximate estimation. Nonetheless, identifying the causes of this metaphysical disease is relatively easy.

When we consider the causes, two things come in play: what we see and what we hear. These two senses form the most immediate routes through which information reaches the brain. Never has there been a time when access to information has been made easy, other than this one. And never has there been a time when access to harmful information has been made easy, other than this one. Majority of the world’s population has been exposed to harmful information in the form of films and music that leave little to the imagination, books and magazines that are explicit, video games that perpetrate violence, world leaders that perpetuate hatred and bigotry, the list is endless.

The effect of the aforementioned causes is this: it puts us to sleep, it robs us the ability to think, to focus on the most important things that will make our lives better if we pay attention to them. Mental obesity is a tool designed with the intention of controlling the masses. As I’m writing this, an attack has occurred in the Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul just a few days ago where many lives have been lost and many more have been injured.

Yet most, if not all, of us will simply post a facebook status talking about how our thoughts and prayers are with them, and then nada. Our job is done. Congratulations! We’ve succeeded in making this world a better place yay!

But we actually can make this world a better place. We can turn it into the eutopia that we and our forefathers envisioned it to be, not the dystopian wasteland that it’s going to be. We can only do this, however, if we decide to flex our brains and do those mental push ups while consuming healthy metaphysical food.

So stop watching porn, stop watching pointless Tv shows and films that will not move your soul in the right direction. Stop doggedly obsessing over the lives of celebrities who don’t even know you, who set unrealistic standards in your lives to intentionally make you feel miserable.

Instead, read the Quran or any good book that’ll nourish your mind and spirit, consume good information that’ll open up your mind and see the possibilities of a better future, listen to good music, watch empowering lectures.

You’ll change your life for the better and you’ll be able to change the world for the better.

Stop being a zombie.

Start being human.

Notes

1. This paragraph was not meant for people suffering from obesity due to circumstances beyond their control. I pray to Allah he brings them relief in this life and the next.

2. Ihya ulum-u-din, book 1; the book of knowledge.

Photo Courtesy: http://www.alivehealthblog.com/

Have you ever been called fat? Obese? Fatso? Or maybe stick, 1gb or any other kind of name related to your body size? Have you ever had people rubbing it on your face on how ugly you look because you just gained some weight or is too skinny? Well, you are not the only one.

It is always hurting and rather irritative when someone starts discriminating you by your weight or height. Many people end up having stress and being depressed for the comments they get from friends and relatives or colleagues. We tend to forget that we are all creations of people and each individual are beautiful just as they are. Sometimes the woman you laugh at for being obese could be suffering from hypertension or that very skinny boy could be suffering from diabetes. Yet still it isn’t a must that there should necessary be a reason for someone being fat or too skinny.

We can all remember as children at school, there would never miss that one boy or girl who was called fatso and everyone including the teachers would mock at their eating behaviours and body weight. The poor children always had a low esteem and are mostly exposed to bullying. Some end up hating themselves and their lives which makes them lock themselves up at home, with very few friends while others start extreme diets that rather becomes unhealthy at some points.

It has been noted though that it is mostly women who are hurt on how they are perceived in terms of body weight and height. Many take up strict diets to ensure that they lose much and never gain. The irony though is that some women, though very skinny, still deny themselves food for the fear of gaining weight. It is hereby that some become anorexic which is characterized by a phoebia of gaining weight.

For one to know whether they are underweight, normal, fat, overweight or obese you should calculate your BMI, body mass index, which is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women. The weight of each person depends on their height too and that is why for example people who are both tall and fat, have big bones and thus the weight of the bones goes both to the height and weight. So this tests clearly shows in which category one is.

Gaining weight isn’t an awful thing as most people make it seem though it is important that one takes control of their eating habits such that they grow healthily.

For those who are overweight or obese, don’t be too sad on your situation. There are ways of keeping fit and dieting such that you may be in your right weight category. As for those who are underweight, start eating well and not just well, but healthily too. Keeping fit is better than dieting that could make you fall down due to extreme food reduction. Accept yourself as you are, which is most important.

What some people forget is that one mans poison is another persons meat. The person you may consider to be fat and ugly may still seem pretty to another person. The rest of the world should show appreciation to every fat person we know instead of being insensitive by mocking them. So today, we will make it special to celebrate all the fat, overweight, obese as well as the skinny underweight all over the world cheers to you! You are beautiful as you are!

MENTAL OBESITY

THE EXTREMES IN WEIGHT