Why did God create the pig if it is considered unclean?

Because not everything God has created is meant to be eaten. That Muslims do not eat pork says something about the right food for human beings, not about the animal’s worth in creation.

The question sounds difficult at first, but the answer is close at hand. God created snakes, scorpions, worms and eagles, and no one would think of eating them. The child sitting next to us is also God’s creation, and of course that child is not there to be eaten. Most of what God has created was never meant to be food.

Every creature has its own place in creation, as the second verse above says. Whether people may eat a particular animal is only a small question beside this greater order. A food prohibition does not mean that God created the animal without purpose.

When the Holy Qur’an calls a food unclean, it is about what is good for human beings, not an insult to the creature. God knows what nourishment benefits people. He has permitted a great deal and forbidden very little.

Scripture also often uses animals as images. The serpent in the story of Paradise, for example, stands for a voice inside man himself. It whispers that he should simply enjoy himself and let no limit hold him back. Those who follow it often experience the opposite of what it promised, and their families and society suffer with them.

Limits on what we eat and how we live are therefore not a lack of freedom. They train a person in self-control, and in the end everyone benefits from that.