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Is it necessary to eat with the family despite not feeling hungry for five hours, and what is the correct Sunnah for eating?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Islam's guidance regarding food and drink is comprehensive and beneficial, and it is divided into two levels: the level of virtue, where one eats only what is necessary to sustain oneself, and the level of obligation, which dictates that one should not harm oneself by eating too much or too little. Excessive eating is disliked (makrooh), and it becomes forbidden (haram) if it leads to self-harm. Extravagance in permissible things, and exceeding their limits, is a forbidden transgression. Physical ailments in the body often result from overeating and consuming harmful foods, leading to various diseases. The levels of nourishment are three: necessity, sufficiency, and surplus. A few morsels are enough for a person to sustain himself, and if he exceeds that, he should eat to fill one-third of his stomach, leaving two-thirds for water and breath. This is always the best approach, whereas excessive satiation weakens one's faculties. If the questioner understands the difference between what is permissible (halal), desirable (mustahab), forbidden (haram), and disliked (makrooh), the ambiguity will be removed, and what remains is the struggle against one's own desires. If one overeats without reaching the point of being forbidden, there is no harm, but if one has done wrong, then one must seek forgiveness and repent.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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