Food Through Faith Part 2: Introduction To Halal Dietary Laws
By Adam Majewski
they ask you as to what is allowed to them. say: the good things are allowed to you, and what you have taught the beasts and birds of prey, training them to hunt-- you teach them of what allah has taught you-- so eat of that which they catch for you and mention the name of allah over it; and be careful of (your duty to) allah; surely allah is swift in reckoning- The Holy Quran
Through the progression and evolution of the human understanding of food, and what we as muslims have construed as Halal. Many people feel classifying such ingredients as acetone in the processing of our foods to be halal even though it is just as Haram as an ingredient as Alcohol. As much as anyone should support affordable food for everyone, cheap synthetic ingredients as a whole are not Halal, based on the long term effects they have on the human body and our society such as alcohol does at any level.
A small list to start everyone off on a general rule of thumb for Halal foods:
-Look at all the ingredients at anything which is required to have a list of ingredients(If it is a synthetically made ingredient it’s not Halal).
-If you don’t know what the ingredient is then don’t consume until you learn what it is.
-Any naturally occurring ingredient which does not have to be Synthetically produced in order to be produced is Halal.
-If it is not a food it’s Haram, not Halal. Such as products used to produce foods on a large scale, and classified as an ingredient. Many of these products are
-All meats produced in accordance to Halal or Kosher slaughtering processes are both Halal.
-Foods which are brought to market with little to no processing, are Halal. Foods which are processed to the point in which it is structurally not the same food or item any more, is not food at all and is not Halal.
o you who believe! do not forbid (yourselves) the good things which allah has made lawful for you and do not exceed the limits; surely allah does not love those who exceed the limits
and eat of the lawful and good (things) that allah has given you, and be careful of (your duty to) allah, in whom you believe
In essence we as muslims not only need to learn the meaning of the Quran and learn about what we believe, we also need to learn the context of our beliefs when Muhammad was alive(peace and blessings be upon him) the food landscape was a lot different the id is today.
This statement is not meant as we need to change any of our beliefs or evolve as a faith, what we need to do is take into consideration to the foods which were accessible to us at the time of the prophet(PBUH) and what we as Muslims are now considering to be food and are consuming even though most of what we are consuming is not meant to be food for us in any way.
What is meant by this is that the context we use our beliefs in, or interpret our beliefs to relate to need to be in context to what Allah(SWT) has put in front of us as life’s tests not to the tests which were put to our brothers and sisters during Mohammad’s time (PBUH).
Many fellow Brothers and Sisters are stuck in the past, interpreting our beliefs in relation to the past, not rationally putting into perspective that one needs to put our beliefs in todays context.
We don’t live fourteen hundred years ago, we live in a time with more complexity, more uncertainty, more confusion. In Muhammad's time(PBUH) life was simple.
A person grew their own food, or produced something to gain the food they needed, they fulfilled the duties in society and they did everything in honor and remembrance of Allah(SWT).
Now how ever most people can’t approach life this way due to it not being a current viable way in economic constructs to do so. As well most of the food produce, or so called “food” is not really food today. It is treated nothing more than chemical compounds which can be arranged and rearranged in any one form or another.
As this series progresses as food through faith these first two pieces are a base line on beliefs as well small amounts of cultural opinions. As the Allah’s creation(SWT) continues to change and grow in on to itself, our understanding of what he has given us will have to continue to change or grow.
Not that we have to innovate, but it will have to be looked at it relation to what is also going on around us in today’s world to be able to be applied to our daily lives as believing practicing muslims.
