It is said that there is no death due to starvation. However, people die of starvation in many regions of the world. How do you explain this contradiction?

- If Allah has guaranteed sustenance, how can you explain those dying of hunger in Africa?

Dear Brother / Sister,

“No living creature is there moving on the earth but its provision depends on Allah” (Hud, 11:6).

“How many a living creature there is that does not carry its own provision (in store), but Allah provides for them, and indeed for you. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.” (al-Ankabut, 29:60)

According to the verses above, it is Allah (SWT) who gives sustenance to all living beings all their lives long. He (SWT) gives them their food as long as they live; that is, the sustenance is under the guarantee of Allah (SWT).

Allah Almighty, Who is infinitely merciful, has set the world like a dining table and invited the living beings to this feast. Everything, from the tiniest microbe that is invisible by eyes to tons of heavy whales, benefits from this feast.

According to the findings that biology points out there are over two million species of plants and animals on earth. In addition, each species has individuals in infinite numbers. Each has different stomachs, tastes, nutrition; they also have different sustenance. Who feeds so many living beings perfectly every day?

The best example showing that food is given to the living beings by Allah (SWT) is that the weak are fed better. For example, the baby in the mother’s womb is completely deprived of strength. However, it is fed perfectly through the umbilical cord. When s/he is born, s/he gains a bit of strength and that door is closed. This time, s/he is fed on the pure and nutritious milk from the breast. This milk contains all nutrients that are necessary for the baby to live such as fat, protein and carbohydrate except for iron and copper. Those elements are stored in the body of the baby when it is in the mother’s womb by Allah Almighty, Who has undertaken his/her food even before s/he was born. And this process continues for six months.

Is this law in effect only for human babies? Definitely not. It is possible to see similar laws in all living beings. When a lion, which has a reputation of being the king of the jungle, finds its food, it does not eat it but gives it to its hungry cub. A hen first feeds its chicks whenever it finds something to eat.

The law of giving sustenance is valid universally. While human beings take in oxygen and give out carbon dioxide, plants take in carbon dioxide and give out oxygen. These plants form some organic substance through sunlight by receiving some substance out of soil. Just as plants become food for animals so too do some animals become food for some other animals and human beings. This law in the food chain keeps going and no beings is left without food.

We have already stated above that Allah Almighty undertakes the food of the living beings. However, one may think: It is said that some people die of starvation. How can it be explained scientifically?

It is possible to handle this point from different perspectives. Some of the nutrition that human beings take is stored as glycogen and fat. In case of hunger, these stores are consumed. The nutrition in the stores enables man to live for a long time. The research that Doctor Dewey conducted regarding the issue is quite remarkable:

Two four-year-old children carelessly took medicine, and burns occurred in their stomachs and alimentary canals, and they could not eat. The first child, who was weak and delicate, managed to survive 75 days by using the reserve in his body. The other boy, who was relatively stronger, endured 90 days.

Doctor Bertholet did research about the hungers of long duration and obtained striking results. According to these results, the loss of weight resulting from the long-term hunger takes place in tissues and organs such as fat and spleen, which are not vitally important. In addition, this research showed that in long-term hunger, the body uses 97% of the fat, 63% of the spleen, 56% of the liver, 30% of the muscles, and 17% of the blood. However, the same research shows that there is no loss of weight in brain and nerves, which are vitally important. And this indicates that during hunger, there is consumption not from vitally important organs, but from others. In such a hunger case, as recent research has pointed out, fats are transformed into ketones and sent to the rescue of the brain cells.

The findings in relation to this issue have shown that one can survive around 80 days without eating anything. However, the food supply must not be cut off immediately. Otherwise, the body may grow weak since the usual habit of eating is deserted, and this may lead to death. Ibn Khaldun expresses this as follows:

“Those who eat more suffer more than those who eat less in the places of famine. What kills them is not famine they are facing, but the satiety they had been used to.” (1)

It is stated that 20% of those who die of starvation are children below one year old in India and 35% in Africa. The microbes are ready to take hold of the body and assault it at the moment it is weak. Since children, in particular, are more vulnerable regarding the issue, they die of hunger more than others. Then, those who are said to have died of hunger do not die because of lack of food, but because of the diseases originating from the scarcity of food.

In this respect, Prof. Dr. Sabahattin Zaim writes as follows:

“It is stated that even in Far East, South America, and Africa where food production is rather insufficient, the amount of food production have not fallen but remained stable in the last 30 years; as for the other regions, it has risen between 16% and 50%. The existence of people who could be regarded hungry in some places of the world is explained with the insufficient human employment in the same book. In these countries, it is stated that the capital is abundant, which is one of the production factors. The developments, which are seen in sources and other possibilities for a progress, in all countries, are enough to enable the national revenue to increase faster than population.” (2)

According to the results of a study conducted in England, with the ample use of fertilizers, food production is possible to increase tenfold. This means that around 31.5 billion people could be fed. (3)

Footnotes:

1. Canan, İ.; Hz. Peygamber’ in Sünnetinde Terbiye (The Good Manners In the Sunnah of The Prophet Muhammad) Third Edition, 1984.
2. Zaim, S.; Siyasi, İktisadi ve Sosyal Yönleriyle Türkiye’ de Nüfus Meselesi (The Question of Population In Turkey From Economic And Social Aspects), 1973
3. Ergüllü, E.; Geleceğin Büyük Sorunu Açlık (Starvation; The Great Problem of The Future), Milliyet Newspaper, 21.12.1982.

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