"I was not created to be occupied by eating delicious foods like tied up cattle"
About this Quote
The line rejects a life whose horizon is the stomach. To be made for eating delicious foods like tied up cattle is to surrender the distinctive human gifts of intellect, freedom, and moral responsibility. The image is sharp: a haltered animal stands still as it is fattened, its days circumscribed by fodder and the rope. Such a life is easy, even pleasant, but it is also captivity, a narrowing of purpose until one becomes defined by appetite.
Ali ibn Abi Talib, a 7th-century statesman and spiritual teacher revered for justice and insight, consistently pressed against that reduction. His public life modeled a principled austerity. He wore coarse clothes, ate simple fare, and criticized leaders who used power to chase luxury. In a famous letter, he rebuked an official for attending an elite banquet, arguing that authority should stand with the hungry and the poor rather than the well-fed. The stance was not contempt for food or the world itself. It was a refusal to be owned by what one owns. In Islamic terms, this is zuhd: detachment that keeps goods in their place so the soul remains free for worship, knowledge, courage, and service.
The phrase was created carries theological weight. If humans are created, then they have a purpose, a telos, beyond consumption. Insisting on that purpose resists passivity, comforts that numb discernment, and the quiet domestication of conscience. Appetite is not the enemy; enthronement of appetite is. Gratitude for sustenance fits with discipline, generosity, and the pursuit of justice.
The line also speaks cleanly to the present. Abundance can become its own tether, and constant novelty its own rope. The remedy is not grim denial but ordering desire toward higher ends. Eat, but do not be eaten by what you crave. Enjoy, but do not trade agency for comfort. Live so that your creation shines through your choices.
Ali ibn Abi Talib, a 7th-century statesman and spiritual teacher revered for justice and insight, consistently pressed against that reduction. His public life modeled a principled austerity. He wore coarse clothes, ate simple fare, and criticized leaders who used power to chase luxury. In a famous letter, he rebuked an official for attending an elite banquet, arguing that authority should stand with the hungry and the poor rather than the well-fed. The stance was not contempt for food or the world itself. It was a refusal to be owned by what one owns. In Islamic terms, this is zuhd: detachment that keeps goods in their place so the soul remains free for worship, knowledge, courage, and service.
The phrase was created carries theological weight. If humans are created, then they have a purpose, a telos, beyond consumption. Insisting on that purpose resists passivity, comforts that numb discernment, and the quiet domestication of conscience. Appetite is not the enemy; enthronement of appetite is. Gratitude for sustenance fits with discipline, generosity, and the pursuit of justice.
The line also speaks cleanly to the present. Abundance can become its own tether, and constant novelty its own rope. The remedy is not grim denial but ordering desire toward higher ends. Eat, but do not be eaten by what you crave. Enjoy, but do not trade agency for comfort. Live so that your creation shines through your choices.
Quote Details
| Topic | God |
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