Tayyab Ibn Ismail Zahli
Tayyab Ibn Ismail was blind. His slave would take him as far as the masjid. One day he said to the Shaykh “Oh Shaykh take off your shoes.” He questioned why? The reply came “because there is impurity on them.” At this Shaykh became upset, he lifted his hands and prayed then passed both hands over his eyes. Instantly his sight was returned to him. (Jame’ Karamaatul Auliya)
■ Why Did the Prophets, Companions, and Aulia Allah Choose Hunger?
Ever wondered why the most beloved servants of Allah ﷻ—the Prophets, Companions, and Aulia Allah—often chose to remain hungry, even when food was available? 🤔
Was it because they had no access to delicious meals? No.
Was it because they were forced into hunger? No.
Then why?
Because they had found something far more important than food.
They weren’t just surviving on hunger; they were thriving in it.
Have you ever been so busy with something that you completely forgot to eat?
Maybe you were working on an important project, deep in a heartfelt conversation, or simply lost in the beauty of a moment.
Now, imagine being so immersed in worship, so lost in the love of Allah ﷻ, that food no longer holds any meaning.
That’s exactly what happened with the Prophets, Companions, and Aulia Allah.
Imam Ghazali (ر) explained it beautifully:
❝When a person reaches a certain spiritual level, worldly things start feeling like distractions meant for children.❞
Food wasn’t their concern. Their hearts were too busy with greater things.
For most of us, hunger feels like suffering. But for them?
Hunger was a door to enlightenment.
They didn’t just endure hunger; they embraced it because they knew something we don’t:
The less you feed your body, the more you feed your soul.
They believed that when the stomach is full, the soul becomes lazy. But when the stomach is empty, the heart awakens.
That’s why the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his closest companions would sometimes go days without eating. It wasn’t just out of necessity—it was a deliberate spiritual practice.
In our world, food is everything.
We plan our days around meals. We celebrate with food. We stress-eat. We diet. We overeat.
But for them…
Food was just a temporary necessity—not an obsession.
✅ They didn’t crave it.
✅ They didn’t chase after it.
✅ They didn’t consider it an important issue in life.
They had trained their hearts to be free from the distractions of the stomach.
Many of us have experienced it—after a big meal, all we want to do is sleep.
A full stomach often makes the body heavy, the mind dull, and the heart lazy.
That’s why these spiritual giants in Sufism chose hunger over comfort—because it kept them light, awake, and spiritually sharp.
They knew that too much food leads to:
🚫 Laziness in worship
🚫 Decreased spiritual awareness
🚫 Weak self-control
Instead of eating more, they prayed more. Instead of sleeping after meals, they cried in sujood. Instead of indulging, they disciplined themselves.
Here’s something beautiful:
Even when they had food, they often gave it away.
The Holy Quran describes the people of Taqwa:
❝They feed others despite their own hunger, saying, ‘We only feed you for the sake of Allah; we desire no reward or thanks from you.’❞
(Surah Al-Insan: 8-9)
This was their mindset:
They felt happier seeing someone else eat than eating themselves.
They sacrificed their own food so that someone else wouldn’t sleep hungry.
They believed that feeding others would bring eternal rewards in the Hereafter.
What a contrast to us! We often worry about whether our plate has enough, while they worried about whether someone else’s plate was empty.
SubhanAllah sitting at a fancy restaurant, but you know there’s a royal feast waiting for you later.
Would you waste your appetite on ordinary food? Of course not!
That’s exactly how these great souls viewed worldly pleasures.
They didn’t want to fill themselves up here because they knew the real feast was waiting in Jannah.
They believed that every pleasure enjoyed here reduces the rewards of the Hereafter.
They saw the luxuries of this world as incomplete and wanted to experience the perfect ones in the next life.
That’s why they chose to remain hungry here—so they could feast there.
The Prophets, Companions, and Aulia Allah understood something we forget:
❝The body needs food, but the soul needs hunger.❞
They weren’t just hungry for food.
They were hungry for Allah’s love.
They were hungry for spiritual closeness.
They were hungry for the eternal rewards of the Hereafter.
Because at the end of the day, the real hunger we should fear is not the hunger of the stomach…
It’s the hunger of a heart that has forgotten its Creator.
