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In my recent question on why cow meat isn't prohibited when there is a hadith saying "beware of cow meat, because it is a cause of sickness", the answer was that it is only forbidden when it harms you.

According to most scholars, eating too much meat is bad for the health (and harms). See for instance this article:

Last month the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) concluded red meat consumption was strongly linked to the development of colorectal cancer – the fourth most common cancer in the UK - and that by eating no more than 500 grams a week of cooked beef, lamb or pork we could considerably lower our risk.

Also relevant: "A poor diet is 'worse than smoking' for fatal illnesses".

  • Research found poor diet accounts for 10.8 per cent of death and illness
  • Experts say tobacco is responsible for 10.7 per cent of total illness

Having this in mind, would it be prohibited to eat meat every day? To make this less broad, by meat I mean red meat
(Considering the amount is higher than 500g per week)

Arguing that it for instance might differ from person to person how much he could eat without getting harmed, same argument could be used for smoking, but still no one wouldn't say smoking isn't prohibited.
I explain this because if one answers saying it's prohibited only if it harms you it will often be too late. Because when you actually notice that it has harmed you, then it's of course too late and would had been prohibited, but you wasn't aware of that.


Maybe relevant:
It's known that the prophet didn't eat much meat at all, he is classed to have been a semi-vegetarian. There is the famous saying of Umar Ibn Al-Khattab; "beware of meat because it is addictive as wine".

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The basic Islamic principle is that everything that is proven to be harmful is haram.

The food may be halal in principle, but because of extravagance in eating it that leads to harm, it may be haram. This does not apply only to meat; everything that will cause harm to a person if eaten is haram, even dates.

In this case, it is proven that eating meat daily is harmful so it is haram to eat it, but it should be noted that harmful foods may vary from one person or country to another, so it is not permissible to say that it is haram in general terms, rather it is haram only for the one who will be harmed by it, if he eats the amount that will harm him.

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  • Thank you for answering, I am not looking for the evidences that everything that is harmful is haram. That was already mentioned in my question: "it is only forbidden when it harms you". But your last statement "it seems eating meat daily could possibly harm you so it is not permissible to eat meat daily." seems to be more what I am looking for. Could you focus on that conclusion more?
    – Kilise
    May 11, 2017 at 13:36
  • yeah i know but I had to put the references for others to see
    – Casanova
    May 11, 2017 at 13:39
  • I cant really say directly that is haram.
    – Casanova
    May 11, 2017 at 13:50
  • Yes I understand one cannot say that directly. But then one wouldn't be able to say smoking is haram either (see the question for details). The only thing I feel is missing in the answer is a comment on this: "I explain this because if one answers saying it's prohibited only if it harms you it will often be too late. Because when you actually notice that it has harmed you, then it's of course too late and would had been prohibited, but you wasn't aware of that."... Also considering the scientific "proofs" that it is harmful, would one be able to say its haram?
    – Kilise
    May 11, 2017 at 13:55
  • The thing with meat is you could possibly cook it in a way to make it healthy or maybe eat in less amount or buy the ones which are healthy. So you can't say for sure it is haram. But smoking is a different case. It will always harm you.
    – Casanova
    May 11, 2017 at 14:00

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