Carnivorousness Ethical Issue in Islamic Mysticism Revisited

It is believed that vegetarianism is an oriental tradition and is formed in the Western philosophers of ethics or ordinary people under the influence of Buddhism teachings and Hindu religion. Accordingly, carnivorousness entails violating an ethical rule and consequently is considered to be inadmissible. Carnivorousness is inadmissible due to observing animal rights, so it is abandoned. Anti- carnivorousness argumentations in this register have got “the-other-oriented” background, as animals are regarded as instances of “the-other”. On the other side, abandoning carnivorousness has been common for some Sufis. Some believe that abandoning carnivorousness in some Sufist schools has been under the influence of some Hindu schools and Sufis regard carnivorousness ethically inadmissible. The authors of this paper contend that adhering to such a tradition among the Muslim mystics has not been influenced by other schools of thought and the principles of abandoning carnivorousness by Muslim mystics has been different from the adherents of Hindu schools and contemporary philosophers of Ethics. Abandoning this habit in Sufism is more humanistic rather “the-other-oriented” and its function is more related to the spiritual conduct of people. Thus, it seems that carnivorousness in Sufism is not an ethical issue. However, if the virtuous ethics is taken into account, an ethical elaboration on abandoning carnivorousness by Sufism could be concluded.