‘In livestock, too, you have a lesson– We give you a drink from the contents of their bellies, between waste matter and blood, pure milk, sweet to the drinker’. (16:67)
‘There is a lesson for you in livestock: We produce milk for you to drink from their bellies. And they have many other benefits: you eat them and you ride on them, as you do in ships.’ (23: 22-23)
‘Can they not see how, among the things made by Our hands, We have created livestock they control, and made them obedient, so that some can be used for riding, some for food, some for other benefits, and some for drink? Will they not give thanks?’ (36:72-74)
All these blessings and benefits of a life-time should make man reflect on his utter dependence on the Almighty for everything. Indeed, man should recognize the wisdom and incomparable kindness of the Lord in assembling all those benefits, and remain grateful to His Lord, submitting to the Divine commands, the will and wisdom of the Creator and Sustainer of the worlds; he should reject Satanic temptations that make him forget his true condition and feel 'self-sufficient' and ignore God, betraying arrogance and hubris. Remaining a true servant of God on earth, all believers should be thankful and grateful for all the blessings of this world that come their way by the sheer kindness and mercy of the True Master and Lord of All the worlds.
Reproduced Below is a fascinating essay written by Imam- Jamaat Ul sahih Al Islam International Hazrat Muhyiuddin Al Khalifatullah Munir Ahmad Azim (aba) of Mauritius on the significance of Milk and Milk products for humanity; the very many benefits of milk consumption for human beings, for their health and well-being, as a medicine and elixir of life:
THE IMPORTANCE OF MILK & MILK BY-PRODUCTS
Milk is nectar for the human system. When a child is born, his or
her mother automatically has her breasts full of milk to feed the newborn
child. Hence milk is the most natural food for human being. One may go anywhere
in the world, one would find the status of milk priceless in human diet.
Right from his birth, a human being takes milk as his natural
diet. And milk has very many other forms which we use in our diet. Ghee is one
of such forms. It can be deemed to be a super-concentrated form of milk only.
The ancient people believed that Milk and Ghee are the only elixir available on
the earth.
Let us see the varieties of the milks that are available for human consumption:
i. Cow’s Milk: It is
believed to be the best milk available on the earth. It is full of nutritive
qualities and ideal diet for those heart patients who suffer due to excessive
cholesterol in their blood. Its regular consumption enhances physical and mental
strength, keeps the body healthy and increases the potency of the body.
It is not only nutritive; it helps in also
taking out the impurities from the body. It makes eyes bright, muscles and
tendons healthy and bones sturdy yet supple. Its taste is also very good.
ii. Goat’s Milk: It is
sweet in taste with a slightly insipid tinge, light on the human system, cool
in effect and easily digestible. For the patients suffering from digestive
disorder, it is a very effective potion to rejuvenate their body. For children
below ten years and for elderly people beyond 45 of age, for the general
maintenance of their body, it is an ideal potion. It can be deemed to be a sort
of medicated milk.
iii. Buffalo’s Milk: It
is more viscous, sweet in taste and very effective to enhance the sexual
potency of a man. It is rather a heavy potion and difficult to digest. For
those suffering from insomnia, it is more effective than even cow’s milk. To
digest this milk one should do a lot of exercises otherwise it would make the person
obese.
iv. Sheep’s Milk: It
is sweet with a slightly salty tinge, heavy and especially effective to cure
wind-troubles. It makes the person sexually more potent. The heart patient
should avoid consuming this milk. If a person is injured, or has stone problems
or diabetes, this milk is ideal for him. It produces more bile and phlegm in
the body.
HOW & WHEN TO DRINK MILK
(a) The ideal way to have milk is to have it warm right from the
cow’s udders! What people normally do is this: they place a fine cloth having
sugar-candy powder on its upper layer. Then the cow is milched. The stream of
milk falls on the cloth, and reaches down strained from the sugar-candy mixture.
The milk is slightly sweet and a little warm owing to its udder freshness.
The sweetened milk is collected in a bowl and drunk as it is. This
milk is ideally hot, sweet and very nutritive. It is the best potion to have
early in the morning! This kind of milk gets digested in just two hours while
normally fire-heated milk takes 4 to 5 hours for its digestion.
Normally, only cow’s milk can be consumed unheated. Buffalo’s milk should never
be consumed this way otherwise it would lead to all sorts of ailments.
(b) Normally milk is to be heated till first boiled and then
cooled to make it comfortably potable.
(c) If you are fond of buffalo’s milk, never drink it hot. Boil it, then, cool
it before drinking.
(d) Goat’s milk should also not be drunk very hot.
(e) Whatever type of milk you have, first strain it through a fine cloth or a
strainer.
(f) Try not to gulp down milk quickly. Rotate it in your mouth, and suck it
after you have done so. It is essential that saliva must be properly mixed with
milk before you gulp it down. If drunk without the mixture of saliva, it would
take longer to be digested and create more wind.
(g) There is an old saying which states to drink water while sitting and drink
milk while standing. The reason for saying so is only that when your body accepts
milk all your body organs should be in their normal position. If you drink milk
while sitting on a chair let your legs hang down.
(h) The quantity of milk one consumes depends very much on the
drinker’s capacity. One should consume milk according to one’s liking for it
and also one’s height. A one foot tall child should consume a litre of milk as
full food. The same way a five feet tall man can have five litres of milk as
total food. Normally ladies consume less milk than men.
(i) Never mix mill-refined sugar in milk. Add honey, sugar-candy, jaggery, etc.
The mill-refined sugar reduces the nutritive quality of milk. But it is still
better if one develops a habit of drinking milk without sweetening it. Nature
has already sweetened it adequately.
(j) You may have a cow’s milk as and when you want. But one should have buffalo’s
milk only when one retires for the day.
(k) Be careful with what you are having milk over. If you have
milk over crab-meat [and there are some people, unfortunately in Islam as well
who have fallen in liquor -[alcohol] drinking, and such people if they consume
alcoholic drinks along with milk], they might develop rashes over their body.
(l) Drink milk with little of jaggery added to it, if you have any urinary
obstruction. This combination is also good for those who have stone in their
bladder.
(m) Never consume milk over leafy vegetables alone and never have it as well over
radishes.
(o) The young growing children should have Dharoshna milk (i.e. warm
milk right from the Cow’s udders) for the speedy growth of their body.
(p) It is advisable to have milk along with light food and not
after it. The ideal way is to replace water with milk during your meals.
Milk and ghee cure a variety of ailments like if taken in proper
dose and with proper combinations.
MILK & GHEE USED AS MEDICINE TO CURE AILMENTS
Milk & Ghee can be used as Medicine to cure the following ailments:
Acidity, Anaemia, Antidote of Poison, Antidote of Drugs (like Bhang, etc.),
Asthma, Bilious Irruptions, Boils on the Tongue & Palate, Blood Impurity,
Bleeding Dysentery, Burning Sensation in the eyes, Baldness, Constipation,
Chronic Cough, Chronic Fever, Common Cold, Chilblains of the Sole, Dark
Complexion, Dark Freckles on the face, Diphtheria, Diarrhoea, Diabetes,
Ear-pain, Epilepsy, Flatulence, and Gonorrhoea (among others).
1. Acidity: Plain milk of cow
also has acidic effect if it mixes with the acidic juices inside the body. To
neutralise the acidic effect and the lactic acid present in the milk, add jaggery
to it according to taste and have this potion at least 4 to 5 times in a day
when cold.
It is the calcium content of milk which will make you urinate
frequently and the acidity in the system will be controlled. Stop taking heavy,
spiced and hot food till you feel this acidic excess on the body.
2. Anaemia: Have cow’s milk
after food or along with it. This milk is easy to digest and forms blood very
quickly. It is better to take unsweetened milk with your food and stop taking
water along with food. Also, have a glass of warm buffalo’s milk when you
retire for the day.
3. Antidote of Poison: Make the sufferer have cow’s milk with a spoonful of cow’s ghee
added to it. Add a dash of jiggery, or it can be taken as it is. It is especially
effective to neutralise the poisonous effect caused by taking Datura. Whenever
the sufferer wants water, give him this potion only. In a couple of hours the
adverse effect will vanish.
4. Anti-dote of Drugs (Bhang, etc.): Those who are not habituated to
have Bhang [unlike the Hindus etc.] have very adverse affect of it. Normally such
persons consume what they call “Thanda-ee” with Bhang around Holi festival.
Since Bhang causes extreme dryness in the body, then those who are intoxicated
by the Bhang, they should be made to drink cow’s milk with a spoonful of cow’s
ghee added to it. The dryness will vanish and the person would sleep comfortably.
5. Asthma: In Asthma and other allied respiratory disorders, the following
treatment is very effective. Add the paste of two garlic cloves in cow’s milk
and boil the mixture till only half of it remains. Now chew a garlic clove and
drink this potion. Continue eating the garlic clove with enhanced number till
it is eleven and then reduce in the same order. In 21 days you shall be cured.
6. Bilious Irruptions: These are caused when you have move bile secreted
in the body than it is due. During hot season such a malady surfaces more. The
most effective cure is taking cow’s milk every four hourly interval. You can have
it lukewarm but unsweetened. In a couple of days’ time the irruptions will be
cured. Externally apply a paste of fresh cream mixed with a little of lemon
juice.
7. Boils on the Tongue and Palate: Add a little of catechu (Kattha) in milk and gargle with
this milk. While filling it in your mouth, keep your face skywards, rotate the potion
frequently in your mouth and then spit it out. Do so early in the morning and
late in the night at least 10 times each time. In a day the boils will subside.
8. Blood Impurity: It
normally manifests itself in the form of eruptions on your skin. Stop taking
common salt completely for a few days. Add rinds of orange in milk, boil, cool
and strain the potion and then drink it. This treatment will set right the
imbalance of salts in the body and your skin will be without blemish. Continue
the treatment for about a week.
9. Bleeding Dysentery: Take the fresh cream of cow’s milk, add equal amount of pure honey
and lick the paste. Another treatment is: Add sugar-candy in the milk of goat
and drink it at 8 hourly intervals [i.e. every 8-hour]. Alternatively add 200
gms of water [in a gram measure] in a 100 gms of milk. Boil it, cool and then
drink it in the manner of sucking it. This milk-water solution will clear all
sort of blood discharge from the anus.
10. Burning Sensation in the Eyes: Just take a little of fresh cream of cow’s milk, and line it on
your eyes like you apply collyrium. Do so in the night and by next day morning
the burning sensation will vanish. Also, if you apply cow’s butter on and around
your eyes at least 15 minutes before you take your bath, your eyes will remain
bright.
11. Baldness: Take a hollow
stem of the Posth plant and extract all the seeds inside. Rub them to a paste
form in cow’s milk to make ‘Malida’ of them. Before at least two hours of your
bath, apply this paste on your patch. You would soon have new hair sprouting.
However, if you have been bald for a number of years, this treatment won’t be
much effective.
12. Constipation: If the
constipation has been caused by overeating, then keep fast for a day, have cow’s
milk instead of food. If you feel hungry then have 200 gms of Jalebi mixed in
half a litre of milk. Since both have alkaline effect, the constipation will be
soon cured. But during this period, try to have a lot of water and no heavy
food.
13. Chronic Cough: Bring 200 gms of Pippali and add 50 gms of Dalchini
and grind them separately. Now add 200 gms of water in 200 gms of milk
together with 5 gms of Pippali and 2 gms of Dalchini powder. Boil the lot, when
the solution is dry, take out bitter Pippalis and continue munching them. The
remainder of milk should be drunk over it. In a fortnight’s time you shall be
totally cured.
14. Chronic Fever: Add sugar-candy,
dry ginger or honey depending upon the cause of the fever being wind, bile or
phlegm. Now whip the milk as much as to have its foam emerging up. Have this
foam at 4 hourly intervals [every four hour]. Every time you need it, whip the
milk and have its foam only. In a week’s time this fever will vanish.
15. Common Cold: Whenever you have
such a trouble, leave food, add honey to cow’s milk and drink it - only this -
whenever you feel thirsty or hungry. In about three days’ time the trouble will
vanish. Don’t let the oozing liquid from the nose be stopped by taking “Aspro”
or “Anacines”. Allow it to pass out. Otherwise the stopped fluid will pollute
your blood. Have water at 8 hourly fixed intervals [i.e. every 8-hour].
16. Chilblains on the Sole: Mix a little of salt in cow’s Ghee, apply it
on the chilblains in the night, cover it by a bandage and sleep soundly. Do so
for about three to four days. Your heels will be shining and all the chilblains
will be gone. Normally such chilblains appear in winters only. This treatment
is very effective. Don’t be daunted if there be slight pain on the application
of this paste.
17. Dark Complexion: (i) Take
the dried corners of bread, soak them overnight in the milk of cow and rub the
pieces on your face early in the morning. (ii) Take the powdered dried rinds of
orange, add a little fresh cream and rub it on your face at least half an hour
before you go to take your bath.
18. Dark Freckles on the Face: Massage your face with lukewarm cow’s milk with soft hands. Don’t rub
vigorously your hand on the face. From each side of the top of your face move
your hands in the clockwise direction (left) and in the anticlockwise direction
(right). Leave the unctuous surface as it is for the night and clean it in the
morning.
19. Diphtheria: This could be a fatal disease for children if not taken
due care quickly. Take about two spoonfuls of lukewarm milk and add half a
spoonful of honey. Make the child lick the solution. Externally rub lukewarm ghee
of cow on the chest of the child. Since the obstruction in his throat will be
cleared by this application, the child will begin to breathe normally.
20. Diarrhoea: Take milk in a
large bowl, whip it thoroughly to form foam. Now ‘suck’ this foam gradually.
Although there is nothing to suck in this, yet the action would contract the
muscles of the stomach and the juices secretion will be activated to digest the
undigested material causing this condition. Do so every time you have loose
motion. In a couple of hours you will be alright.
21. Diabetes: Stop all the sweets and whenever you feel like having
something sweet, add a little of honey and cow’s ghee in the lukewarm milk of
cow and drink it. The cream of milk, that is created by the sweetmeat merchants,
by mixing flour of Singhara, is very good for such patients if they take
it with honey mixed in it.
22. Ear pain: When you clean
your ears with hair clip or anything hard, they cause wounds in the ears. Stop
doing so and put a few drops of cow’s milk, or a dash of sugarcane juice’s
vinegar into each ear. This will melt away the filth, heal up the minor
injuries and all the ear-pain, etc. will be cured. If the patient is an infant,
the mother should put a few drops of her milk directly to the ears of her
infant.
23. Epilepsy: Take the lean
roots of the Swallow-wort plant (Aak), grind it in the cow’s milk and make the
patient smell it. When the patient becomes conscious, put a large chunk of “Lahori
Namak” (a kind of rock salt) in his palm and ask him to press it hard. Till the
time the patient has this salt-piece in his hand, he would not get the fit.
24. Flatulence: Warm a bit of cow’s
milk and drink it as much as you can easily. Drink after adding a little of
honey to it! Externally, rub the juice of garlic on the stomach. Garlic juice
has the quality of releasing the trapped wind and help in digestion. The
trapped gas or wind will be discharged and you would feel happy.
25. Gonorrhoea: Have raw “lassi” repeatedly.
It is made by adding raw milk of cow in a little of curd. Don’t sweeten it. If
it is winter season then drink fresh carrot juice sitting in soft sunshine.
These treatments will make you urinate frequently and all he trapped heat shall
get out of the system. In case the patient refuses to have unsweetened milk
then, add only sugar-candy to it. The swelling from the private part will also
subside and the patient will feel better.
Besides curing those illnesses, milk and ghee also cure: Gout,
General Debility, Gastric Trouble, Heart Ailment, Hysteria, Headache,
Indigestion, Jaundice, Liver Ailments, Leucorrhoea, Liquor Hangover, Malaria,
Menstrual Disturbance, Migraine, Navel Displacement, Nose Bleeding, Natural
Sleep Inducing Tonic, Obesity, Old Wound, Paralysis, Piles, Rashes Due to
Biliousness, Sexual Debility (Males), Skin Irritation, Spots of Pimples &
Acnes, Small Pox, Swelling in Eyes, Swelling in Testicles, Throat Trouble,
Thirstiness, Undue Aging, Whooping Cough, Wheezing, and White Spots, among many
other illnesses and defects.
May Allah increase my knowledge and yours so that we may truly treasure the nourishments and cures which Allah has provided us with in our everyday lives. If there are illnesses, there are also cures. May Allah enable us to find the best cures in times of malady. Indeed, He is the Best Curer, and Reliever of Pain. Insha-Allah, Ameen.