• It also indicates that the cornerstone of bodily health lies in regulating one’s diet—eating and drinking what benefits him and maintains his strength and well-being.

• It conveys a command to be economical in one’s intake and to plan it wisely; for after enjoining us to eat and drink, He forbade excess.

• Extravagance is therefore prohibited, especially in food and drink, because it harms one’s religion, intellect, body, and wealth:
– Religious harm: whoever commits what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden has wounded his religion and must treat that wound with repentance and return.
– Intellectual harm: sound reason leads its possessor to do what should be done in the manner it should be done, obliging him to manage his life and livelihood properly. Good management of one’s affairs is among the strongest proofs of sound intellect; so when a person moves from the beneficial limit to the harmful realm of extravagance, there is no doubt that this points to a deficiency in his reason, for poor management betrays a weak mind.
– Bodily harm: whoever overeats and overdrinks injures his body and exposes himself to serious illnesses; many diseases arise precisely from overindulgence in food. Moreover, another kind of harm occurs: once the body becomes accustomed to something, it demands it. If a person accustoms himself to eating large quantities or many varieties of food, those foods may at times be unavailable—because of poverty or some other circumstance—and when the body is deprived of what it had grown used to, its health is thrown off balance.
– Financial harm is self-evident, for extravagance requires large expenditures. Thus Allah says, “And do not spread your hand out to its full extent, lest you end up blamed and destitute” ⦗al-Isrāʾ 17:29⦘—meaning you will be reproached for acting wrongly and will be left “destitute,” empty-handed.