Halal and Haram

When dealing with food and drink, you will often hear two words - halal and haram. Halal is an Arabic word meaning lawful or permitted. The opposite of halal is haram, which means unlawful or prohibited. Halal and haram are in fact universal terms that apply to all facets of life.

As far as food is concerned, the Qur'an makes it quite clear as to what is halal and haram. Basically, all food is halal except for the following:

• Meat from swine - pork, ham, gammon, bacon, etc
• Pork-based products and by-products - sausages, gelatine etc
• Animals improperly slaughtered, or already dead before slaughtering is due to take place
• Animals killed in the name of anyone other than Allah (for example, by anyone other than a Jew, Christian or Muslim, or as part of a pagan sacrifice)
• Intoxicants
• Most carnivorous animals, birds of prey and land animals without external ears (i.e, snakes, reptiles, worms, insects etc.)
• Blood and blood by-products
• Foods contaminated with any of the above products

While many things are clearly halal or clearly haram, there are some things which are not clear. These items are considered questionable or suspect and more information is needed to categorise them as halal or haram. Such items are often referred to as Mashbooh, which means doubtful or questionable. Food falling into this category should be treated as haram until you know otherwise.

Intoxicants

It should be noted that the Qur'an specifies intoxicants, not alcohol, as being Haram. An intoxicant is, by definition, a substance eaten, drunk or smoked with the sole intention of becoming intoxicated, or a substance created with that purpose in mind. This basically means alcoholic drinks and narcotic drugs.

Any food which was made with an alcoholic drink (usually wine) is haram because, although the food itself probably couldn't get you drunk, it's alcoholic ingredient was made for that purpose. In most cases this is obvious - for instance Coq au Vin (chicken in wine) or Beef and Ale Pie. Some innocent looking foods that can be made using alcoholic drinks (and are therefore haram) are mince pies and teriyaki sauce. Always check the ingredients label!

In contrast, alcohol can be found in some halal foods, such as bread, soy sauce and vinegar (even cider vinegar or wine vinegar). These sometimes contain minute amounts of alcohol as a result of a natural reaction between certain chemicals during the manufacturing process (as opposed to being deliberatly added), and so couldn't be classed as haram.

Some medicines and mouthwashes contain alcohol. Generally these are halal, but if you can find an alternative then use that instead.

Pork By-Products

This includes ingredients such as gelatine, emulsifiers, fat and enzymes. All of these are haram. They also have alternatives that are either halal or vegetarian that can just as easily be used in their place. Items that can contain these include:

• Jelly / Jello desserts
• Marshmallows
• Gummy sweets
• Lard

A note for muslims in Britain - some fish and chip shops cook their food in pork fat (this is the traditional way), especially Harry Ramsden's. If you enjoy a good fish'n'chip dinner like me, you may as well cook it yourself.

Some medicines also use gelatine as part of their capsules. It can be permissible to use these, but ONLY if there are no alternatives.

Seafood

The Qur'an states that everything creature from the sea is halal, including carnivores such as sharks. You'll see that the list I wrote above says MOST carnivorous animals are haram. Marine predators seem to be the exception to this rule.

I have also seen some sources stating that prawns, crabs and other crustaceans are haram for one reason or another. As far as I can tell, this is not true.

Cheese

Most cheeses, especially popular types like Cheddar, are made with an ingredient called 'rennet'. Traditionally, this is obtained from the cow's stomach which, if the cow was not slaughtered according the Islamic rites, would render it haram. Many cheeses nowadays are made using vegetable rennet, so choose these if possible.

I've tried to cover as many 'grey areas' as I can think of. If you have any other queries, you should go to the Islamicity 'Ask The Imam' pages. This is a searchable database of questions asked to a panel of imams and scholars about a whole host of subjects concerning Islam. I can highly recommend this page as I have learnt a lot through it.

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