Islam for Muslims

• THE FAITH OF MUSLIMS
• 1 Meaning & Importance of Faith (Iman)
• 2 Some Signs of Ideal Faith
• 3 God As The Unique and Supreme being
• 4 God as the All-Powerful
• 5 God’s Power in Shaping Destiny
• 6 God as the Creator
• 7 God as the Merciful
• 8 God as the Protector
• 9 God as the all-knowing
• 10 God as the Guide
• 11 God as the Judge
• 12 The Prophets in the Quran
• 13 Mohammad (pbuh) as the Final Prophet
• 14 Divine Books, Angels & Jinns
• 15 Various Stages of Life after Death
• GOOD DEEDS IN PERSONAL LIFE
• 16 Importance & Types of Good Deeds: Importance & Types of Good Deeds
• 17 Some Ideal Signs of Good Deeds
• 18 God at the Center of Religious Universe
• 19 Sources of Islamic Laws (Sharia)
• 20 Purification & Preparation for Prayer
• 21 The Essentials of Prayer (Salat)
• 22 The Essentials of Charity (Zakat, Fitr and Qurbani)
• 23 The Essentials of Fasting (Siam)
• 24 The Essentials of Pilgrimage (Hajj)
• 25 The Essentials of Knowledge (Ilm)
• 26 The Essentials of Inheritance (Faraiz)
• 27 The Essentials of Halal Income
• 28 The Essentials of Halal Food
• 29 The Essentials of Modest Dress & Behavior
• 30 The Essentials of Marriage & Divorce
• 31 The Essentials of Death & Funeral
• 32 Optional but Valuable Deeds
• 33 Avoiding Personal Sins: Why & How?
• 34 Fighting Satan (Devil) to Avoid Sins
• 35 Five Major Sin Packages
• GOOD DEEDS IN SOCIAL LIFE
• 36 The Importance of Preaching & Good Advice
• 37 The Techniques of Preaching & Good Advice
• 38 The Roles of Family & Parents
• 39 The Roles of Schools & Students
• 40 The Roles of Mosques & Muslims
• 41 The Roles of Print and Social Media
• 42 The Importance of Resisting Social Sins
• 43 The Techniques of Resisting Social Sins
• 44 Observing Islam in a Non-Muslim Environment
• 45 Islamic Governance: Legality, Potentials & Problems
• 46 Criminal Justice System for the Muslims
• 47 The Ideal Qualities of a Muslim: Piety & Proficiency
• 48 The Unity among the Muslims: Why & How?
• 49 The key to progress and prosperity of muslims
• 50 Final Appeal to the Muslims

28: THE ESSENTIALS OF HALAL FOOD

Introduction:  Islam not only obligates you to make money from honest (‘halal’) sources but also requires you to eat ‘halal’ food that you will buy with such halal income. Emphasis on this comes from Quranic mandate to “eat of good things that (God) has provided for you” (7:160).  The Prophet warned about the consequences for not adhering to this ruling: “The body built of prohibited food will burn in hellfire”. In order to be able to eat legal food, you need to know what these are. This aspect is now discussed below.

(A)  Categories of Illegal (Haram) Food: The Infinite Wisdom of God identified some animals as potential carriers of viruses, bacteria etc. that cause diseases and people therefore should avoid eating such food. It may be recalled that 14th century Bubonic Plague as one of the greatest killers in history was caused by rats banned by Islam as food. Another haram animal named horseshoe bat was identified as responsible for 2002 outbreak of epidemic SAAR in China that killed by the hundreds. Bats and monkeys were believed to be the transmitters of Ebola that killed by the thousands in West Africa. Scientists are now in the works of tracking down the animal from what the coronavirus jumped to human, causing the worst pandemic of the 21st century. Many fingers in this regard are now pointed to Asian mammal pangolins and some to bats but the conclusion is not conclusive yet. We do not know yet what animals would be next for transmitting virus to human body causing another pandemic or epidemic. Regardless of this reality, in parts of the world including some East Asian nations, wild animals like snakes, dogs, cats, monkeys, rats, bats etc. are still favored by people as food for their dining table.

             By comparison, the domesticated animals like chicken, cattle etc. that God has chosen as halal food have blessings of not being harmful that way as He said to have “provided for you the sustenance of the best” (16:72). Health concerns aside, another consideration that influenced Islam to draw a line between haram and halal food is the sense of purity and decency.  For examples, Islam totally rejects disgusting food like blood cakes used to be eaten by the Spartans of ancient Greece or cow urine still consumed by some in South Asia. Now follow some identities of illegal food according to the mainstream Muslim jurists.

(1) Food Prohibited by Quran: These include “dead meat, blood and flesh of pig” (2:173), intoxicants (alcohol) (5:90) etc. An organ cut off an animal counts as dead meat. Dead meat is the hot bed for the deadly microbes. Blood of any animal is forbidden. The negatives of alcohol never need any explanation. Pigs live on dirt and filth and its flesh is unhealthy for abundance in fat and cholesterol. It is believed to have played a part in causing swine flu epidemic in Mexico during 2009-2010.  It hosts various types of worms etc. that can possibly affect and damage brain, heart, eye, liver etc. Its prohibition as food is therefore documented in the Bible and Torah as well.  

(2) Animals without Natural Death: The Quran also disqualifies as food the animals and birds that get abnormally killed by “strangling or violent blow, headlong fall, gored to death”; “(partially) eaten by wild animals”, “sacrificed on stone (altar)” and “the division (of meat) by raffling with arrows” (5:3). Animals dedicated to someone other than God is also totally prohibited. Animals or birds hunted with gun or arrow etc. will be legal only if properly “slaughtered” before they are dead (5:4).

(3) Animals without Proper Slaughtering: Lawful animals and birds (fish exempted) will also become illegal if not slaughtered properly. This requires “to pronounce the name of God” over slaughtered animals, in differentiation from their offerings to deities (6:121). Other rules include slaughtering by Muslim men or women, with niyet (intention) and use of sharp knife, for minimizing pain and maximizing drainage of blood. Slaughtering without ablution or unintended beheading, however, should not be a problem. Facing absence of Muslim ‘halal’ food, you are also allowed to eat properly slaughtered “food of the righteous people of the Book (e.g. Jewish ‘kosher’ food)” (5:5).

(4) Animals that Hunt and Eat with Teeth: Examples include tiger, lion, bear, wolf, leopard, monkey, shark, jackal, etc.
(5) Birds that Hunt by Legs: Examples are vulture, falcon, kite, owl, bats etc.
(6) Animals that Live on Dirty Food: mouse, raven, pig etc.
(7) Animals/Insects Dangerous/Hazardous for Human Life: snake, mongoose, scorpion, wasp, bee, fly, mosquito, ant, white ant and other harmful worms and insects.
(8) Residents of the Holes: porcupine, tortoise, rat, earthworm etc.
(9) Miscellaneous: Illegal Animals include cat, dog, ass, mule, lizard etc.
(10) Selected Illegal Body Parts: Include sexual organs, testis, urine, stool, blood, vein, gall, hair. Intestine, however, is lawful.
 (11) Illegal as Food May Not Be Illegal for Other Uses: Illegality of certain items as food does not apply to other types of uses of the same. For example, alcohol is haram for drinking but lawful for medical uses like sterilizing before giving injection. Likewise, you cannot eat tiger meat but you can wear its tanned skin as clothing.
(12) Illegal May Be Conditionally Legal in Dire Situations: During famine type dire conditions, if you are (i) “forced by necessity” to eat any haram food and (ii) you eat regretfully “without willful disobedience” and (iii) eat the bare minimum quantity just to survive and “not transgressing due limits”, then Merciful God may forgive you (6:145). If, otherwise, you playfully “race each other” “in eating of forbidden things”, then that is notoriously “evil” and gravely sinful (5:62).

(B) Halal (Legal) Foods: While the above-mentioned items are disqualified as food, you are particularly allowed to eat the following:

(1) Halal Animals: “All four-footed animals with selected exemptions” (5:1) are halal. Examples include but are not limited to: cow, buffalo, camel, sheep, goat, deer, antelope, rabbit etc. and many others that are not identified as haram (like pork) like the above.
(2) Halal Birds: Two-footed birds such as:  poultry, duck, turkey, ostrich, pigeon, doves, quail, peacock, sparrow, partridge and similar other clean, non-hunting birds are considered as halal.
(3) Halal Fish: All fish are legal food, as declared by God “The game of the sea (fish) and eating thereof is lawful to you” (5:96). Accordingly, all creatures that satisfy the definition of fish by living in water fulltime, breathing with gills and being cold-blooded are generally halal. Obviously, amphibian animals like tortoise, crocodile, frog, snail, oyster etc. do not belong to this category. Also, dangerous, poisonous or killer fish or distasteful ones among them are subject to controversy among the jurists if they should be eaten or not. Fish alive or dead are both lawful but swollen body of dead fish floating on the water is not. Otherwise, fish that died naturally or from any hurt is legal.
(4) All types of plant food are legitimate.

Caution: It will be sinful if you yourself treat any of the above “good things made lawful by God” as illegal (5:87). For example, God objected to the Prophet’s decision of giving up consumption of honey for “seeking pleasure of (his) wives” (66:1).

(C) Screening for Legally Processed Foods:  Thanks to modern industry, processed foods are now available in abundance. Some of them contain illegal ingredients that make the whole food illegal. You should therefore screen out these items in order to “find out which food is the best” (18:19).    

First, you should have patience to read the long list of ingredients printed on food label to identity the illegal ingredients. You will reject the whole food if your search proves positive for any illegal ingredient.

Second, you should enhance your awareness about identity of illegal ingredients. Here are some clues.  Any code letters of ‘K’ or ‘U’, on the label indicate legality and you can eat food bearing these labels even without looking at the details of ingredients. Otherwise, you should reject food containing illegal ingredients like gelatin, glycerine, rennet, lard, pork, marrow, animal fat and animal shortening among many others.  Some of these (example: lipid, enzyme, shortening) may have both animal or plant origin. If these are not written clearly, avoid that food under doubt of prohibited contents. Try to obtain and study books relevant to these matters which are available in many places. Alternatively, you can possibly learn about illegal food elements by contacting the producers or consulting any dieticians or food experts.
 
Conclusion: You must adhere to the above mentioned rules of halal and haram in order to be a perfect Muslim and gain access to divine blessings.