Salamun Alaykum.
I have two questions for brother Joseph Islam.
Question 1:
In your article, "Food Permissibility and Prohibitions", you have nowhere mentioned about 6:121.
Muhammad Asad: Hence, eat not of that over which God's name has not been pronounced: for this would be sinful conduct indeed. And, verily, the evil impulses [within men's hearts] whisper unto those who have made them their own that they should involve you in argument [as to what is and what is not a sin]; and if you pay heed unto them, lo! you will become [like] those who ascribe divinity to other beings or forces beside God. (6:121)
I want to know, doesn't this verse tells us that we will always have to pronounce God's name over ANY food, whether it's meat or vegetables, before eating them?
Question 2:
Very frankly speaking, more than two years ago, my fiancee and I hugged and kissed each other a lot of times, and at that time I was really ignorant and had very less idea about the word of God in the Quran. I was also a Sunni back then, and I was under the influence that we all Muslims will go to paradise anyway. But later when I read the Quran, I got so scared, I felt like I would be going to hell if I die. So my question is, does the word "zina" only means "illegal sexual intercourse", or does it have a wider meaning? Can "hugging and kissing" fall under the meaning of "zina"? Or in other words, have we done zina?