It’s halal, no question about it

By admin-s Last updated May 28, 2014

The Muslim public in Malaysia are easily worked up over issues such as this, thanks again, as I have always stated in the past, to the way Islam is taught in this country.

Abdar Rahman Koya, TMI

I had my usual tiff with my wife the other day and this time, it was not about who left the kid’s nappy on the bathroom floor. The subject is philosophical yet it had to do with the tummy.

We were invited by a non-Muslim friend to a birthday party. I always look forward to parties, because we will have plenty of hands to look after the twins, so that we can finally eat in peace. We were probably the only Muslim family. Yet, it was kind of her to assure us that the food catered on that day was halal.

That verbal assurance is good enough for me, but not my wife and understandably so, since this friend of ours does not have many Muslim friends.

Having been told who the caterer was, she called them to get reassurance that the food was halal and queried whether wine was used for the steak.

I told her that what she had done violates a basic principle of halal and haram (the lawful and the prohibited) in Islamic jurisprudence, and that is not to investigate when something is already known and accepted as halal.

By doing so, we risk creating doubts about the food we eat. And doubts are one of the main enemies in Islamic jurisprudence, the source of many evils and anti-social behaviour among Muslims.

One of the principles of halal and haram is that one should not pry into the origins of something which has been commonly accepted as halal. The same principle applies to many other things. When a host shows us the qiblah (the direction Muslims turn to during prayer) in his house, we do not click the compass app on our smartphone just to make sure.

Similarly, it is taken for granted that everybody performing the pilgrimage in Mecca and Medina is Muslim, or that a woman praying in the mosque is not menstruating.

It is on this same principle that I am not that excited when the halalness of a certain food or product is disproved through DNA tests. It opens up a Pandora’s box, in that doubts will emerge for all the food being mass produced and sold in the shops.

Although official halal watchdogs like Jakim have a duty to ensure a product is halal, since it is they who bear the responsibility as suggested by the phrase “ditanggung halal”, using DNA technology makes a mockery of the principles of halal and haram, as well as Islam’s claim as a religion choosing ease over hardship.

It is just a reflection of the quaint Islamicity practised in the country. The Muslim public in Malaysia are easily worked up over issues such as this, thanks again, as I have always stated in the past, to the way Islam is taught in this country.