"I often feel like our religion has been watered down for us. We live according to a diluted version of the Sunnah of our Nabi (SAW) and the Qur’an. What I mean is, we’re forgetful of (and sometimes just ignorant to) the weight of things"


This is a very loaded and bold statement. It would take much research to validate such a statement. What exactly do you mean by this? Do you want
something more radical to be spoonfed to us?

And I am not sure if you understand the nutritious connotations of eating once a day. This is not a healthy diet in any sense. To charge arrogance to eating more than once is demonizing, antagonistic and far from pious. Please do some research.

Maybe you need to focus on reality rather than some medieval he-say/she-say retelling of another man's life and apply it to your life. I will deinitely pass on this book. JazakAllah

.
Assalamu alaykum brother,

It is a fact that even the most pious of Muslims today don't come anywhere near the piety of the companions, their followers and the followers of their followers (may Allah be pleased with them all). Every succeeding generation is less and less so. This is indisputable and is the very reason that we turn to the lives of those most beloved to our Nabi (peace be upon him) for examples of how self-sacrificial we should really be. To refer to these standards as "medieval he-said/she-said" is to undermine the fact that those Muslims who have preceded us are undeniably more favorable in the eyes of Allah swt and well, who else's opinion really matters? Now of course we might not have the need to fight for Islam quite the way that they did (may Allah be pleased with them) but there are other forms of jihad and it is this struggle, this consciousness of why we are alive that we've become heedless of. I know this might seem a bold and even judgmental statement but one need not do much research to see that our ummah, with its part-time, I'll-decide-when-the-word-of-God-is-serious-enough-to-listen-to followers, are not living Islam fully. May Allah swt forgive us all for our shortcomings and continue to guide us to the straight path, ameen. When the companions (may Allah be pleased with them) were told something, anything by the Prophet (peace be upon him), they (may Allah be pleased with them) rushed to implement it immediately. They (may Allah be pleased with them) didn't question his judgment (peace be upon him), and were far from putting anything above his words (peace be upon him). Forgive me if I've misunderstood, but you appear to have said that "to charge arrogance to eating more than once is demonizing, antagonistic and far from pious" with respect to a hadith I mentioned in my article. Brother if anyone in all of mankind had the authority to tell us what is and is not permissible, it was our Prophet (peace be upon him), no research needed here either. Note that arrogance and extravagance are not the same thing. Arrogance is forbidden because no one save Allah swt is worthy of pride and extravagance is forbidden because to indulge in worldly pleasures beyond necessity is a sure path to forgetfulness of our final destination, Jannah, inshAllah. In any case, this is a perfect example of what I meant by my statement of our religion being watered down for us. Our priorities, ideally, should be those of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his companions (may Allah be pleased with them). They're simply not. For example, I'm sure they all (may Allah be pleased with them) understood the nutritional value of not starving themselves. Yet they consistently put others first and did not eat except out of sheer necessity because they also understood that while their physical being might not be at its best, their souls were tamed and trained and their reward in the Afterlife for being selfless was surely worth more to them than any morsel of food. We're worried about the headaches or mild dehydration we might have to deal with if we skip a meal or two while these men and women (may Allah be pleased with them) went days on end in the deserts of Arabia without a drink of water. Do I think we should deny Allah swt's blessings upon us and starve ourselves to this degree? Certainly not. Do I still stand by my belief that we all eat way more than we need to? Yes. And this is not to mention that there are still millions of people who live under those very conditions today and if nothing else, eating less will inshAllah keep us humble and compassionate to those less fortunate than us and maybe even save a dollar here or there that we can give in charity.
As for Imam Al-Ghazali's book, I wouldn't recommend reading it if you're at risk of casting stones upon his work for the simple reason that he is a credible scholar and to demean his vast knowledge of the deen might put you at risk of demeaning the Words of Allah swt Himself - not a risk worth taking. Lastly, thank-you for your advice. I pray that Allah swt give us all the tawfiq to focus on the only reality that matters- the state of our deen.

Allahu Alim, wassalaamu alaykum

what was that website supposed to prove?