On eating and drinking by MUHIDDIN ARABI

Muhiddin Arabi, author of “Al Tadbirat-ul Ilahiyyah: Islah-ul Memleket-ul Insaniyyah” (The Divine Measures: Improvement of Lands of Humans), of which some passages of the chapter titled “Elegl-u vesh Shurb” (On Eating and Drinking) read as follows:
“Eat only much as you need and never overfill yourself: Do not drink much water. Eat carefully and sparingly. Eat only just as much as would permit you to sustain you in your work and avoid wasting your time in ingestion. Eat carefully in small-sized bites.
Chew your bites well and swallow them only after this. Always start with a prayer. Don’t reach for another before chewing your last bite well and swallowing it. Make it a habit to respect the rights of your companions in the even if you are alone so that mispractices will not become habits that will place you in a predicament before God Almighty and All-forgiving. Don’t keep on looking at the face of the person whom you may have incited to share your food, so that he will not be embarrassed and repent for having accepted food from you. To do so is equivalent to a full day’s prayers. Do not compliment the persons who say that you eat too little, since this may waylay you into excesses. Let them say as much as they will that you eat too little.
When you are ready for your meal, be second only to your peer and never precede him in any conversation and continue to do so until the table is removed. Do not eat at home before going to attend a meal invitation in order to receive praises and compliments to the effect that you eat so little and to be so flattered. Do not heed to those who say so and never change your routine habits of eating save for what the rules of politeness dictate. Such statement are ingrained in the minds of dissenters in order to gee those from the right course.”