Moral Teachings of Islam 11 – Diet Others Ingrediants

In the Name of God, the benevolent the Merciful, the creator and the Sustainer of the universe, peace and rest with peace and blessings upon his servant and messenger Muhammad forever. I mean, I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except the one true God. And I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger and servant of God, I greet you all with the universal greetings of peace. The greetings that have been used by all the prophets from Abraham to Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon them all. Assalamu Aleikum, which means peace beyond you. I'm your host Hamlet Rashid. Today we have our 11th program and this series on moral teachings of Islam. In today's

program, we'll continue with our discussion of dietary laws in Islam. I have with me again on today's program, Dr. Jamal better we have St. Mary's University brother Jamal Assalamualaikum on April sidama. Last week, we had a very interesting discussion, we were talking about the prohibition of the eating of pork in Islam, and we discussed some of the chemical as well as some of the medical reasons for the prohibition could you perhaps just very quickly highlight the main points that we touched on last week in our program? Sure, perhaps you can make reference to the diagrams that we used last time, after talking about the broad classification of different types of fats and oils, we

looked at the neutral lipids or fats and we say that comes in various forms monogr slide dygert aside triglyceride and free fatty acids, we focused further on the triglyceride molecule or you could say the fat molecule and we said that each fat molecule or try gas right molecule is composed of glycerol plus three fatty acids, the distribution of those fatty acids make a difference in terms of the exact nature are a type of fat molecule. And we said that this fatty acids either saturated or unsaturated, and based on this basic structure of composition of the fat molecule, we tried also to show the various distribution of fatty acids in the

the fat molecule. As we said before u stands for unsaturated fatty acids and S for saturated fatty acids. These are the various forms of this distribution of this three fatty acids and the fat molecule. What was really more important in this whole thing is that many studies showed that if you have a high concentration of saturated fatty acids in position to in the structure of the fat molecule, it becomes very difficult to digest. The reason being is that the pancreatic lipase, which comes from the human pancreas to help dissolve or hydrolyzed

or digest fat cannot succeed really in breaking down a fat molecule that has saturated fatty acids in that particular position. And the opposite is true, when you have unsaturated fatty acids in that position.

How does that relate to pork? We have seen again that studies showed that in plant eating animals,

you get generally speaking, a high concentration of unsaturated fatty acids in position two, which means it becomes

rather easy to digest. On the other hand, experiments on meat eating animals

should that generally speaking, they tend to have a high concentration of saturated fatty acids in that position, which make it difficult to digest, which means also that the fat in the case of vegetarian elements is resynthesized in human fat, whereas in other meat eating animals, it is absorbed as it is not resynthesize. But the most interesting part of this whole discussion is that experimental animals in the case of meat that was easy to digest included

poultry, beef, sheep, and deer. On the other hand, the elements that showed the high concentration of saturated fatty acids in position to the ones that were very difficult to digest include dogs, cats, rats,

and fix, which shows that things really do not belong to the edible animals. It's a meat eating, it's a scavenger. The other thing we discussed briefly also was the missed that because the fat, or the pork fat contains a high percentage of polyunsaturated fats that it is easier. And we said that's a mess. Because even though this is true, it still has saturated fatty acids in position two, which is the crucial position insofar as digestion so yes, there is unsaturated fat, but the body doesn't benefit because the fat molecule cannot be broken down or hydrolyzed, as the chemists call it, so the body would entirely benefit from it, it's very difficult to digest despite all of that.

And then we shifted to the medical aspect, we're talking about the

chicken Ella, which is a kind of very dangerous around worm, which infest the pigs, which unlike other worms, it gets into the stomach, the capsule is opened, the larva is fried, it goes to the human intestines, where it matures, and mates and then release a large number of microscopic larva, which get into the bloodstream, out of the blood vessels into the muscles of the body, which is very difficult to

treat and causes lots of kinds of ailments.

Well, now I like to look at the situation of other edible animals. And people oftentimes make the point that animals like cattle, sheep, and so on, these animals also can transmit disease. How then, in your opinion, is are they different from the pig? Well, I wouldn't just to give an opinion, I like to refer to

science on this point.

But

just a very simple

the kind of round worm that we're talking about,

can be composed of two basic species. Both of them start with the name tinea.

But, you see there's a type of roundworm called tinea.

Second Atta,

and another called taenia solium.

Now, the first type of species of round worm, yes, you're right, it could infest also kettles.

However, in this kind of species of worms,

the complete life cycle of the worm is completed in the GI tract or the gastro intestinal tract. And as such, if there's any damage, the damage would be limited to the GI tract. And it also means something more important what happens if the life cycle is completed in the intestines, you can take medicines, so that it be relatively easier to treat the localized kind of situation exactly, right. Whereas in the other type which infests the hog the pig,

this time does not complete its lifecycle in the gastrointestinal tract. As we were just summarizing that it goes into the whole body it does not complete the cycle until it goes to the muscles and then again encapsulate itself

in assist in the form of cysts, see the point, which means then that the damage is much more much graver and very difficult to reach in terms of treatment. So yes, if the worms affects other animals, the most dangerous definitely is the, the one that affects the or infest the pig.

some indication of how chicken houses develops, but I wonder perhaps you might expand on I'm sure many viewers will be interested in knowing how chicken houses breaks out.

Well, I get a quotation here from the book I showed last time, it's called modern biology, just a brief paragraph, which explains it and also elaborates on this main point I was mentioning earlier about the lifecycle. It says there's and then just cutting the chicken or worm, or to Canella is one of the most dangerous of the parasitic roundworms. This round worm passes its first stage as a cyst in the muscles of a pig, dog, rat or cat. If uncooked meat scraps from infested animals are fed to

picks, it is likely that the scraps will contain cysts. In the infestation of a pig, that it's uncooked infested meat scraps, the larva develops into adult worms, mate and produce microscopic larva that tests into the bloodstream and into the muscles, where they again form cysts. When a human being eats undercooked, infested pork, the same thing happens, the cysts are released and the larva matures, or mature in the Enter Stein, each worm discharged in the bloodstream about 1500, Young's

1500, which eventually form cysts in the muscles of the human being. This disease is known as the check Nasus. One method of preventing it is to feed hogs only cooked meat scraps. However, the best way to prevent this disease as well as other parasitic worm infection, is to cook all meats as thoroughly as possible and thereby avoid any risk. In fact, the best way is when students was telling you telling a teacher what my that just exactly if it's that dangerous, very difficult, why not just avoid it altogether. It's not like avoiding other things that you might have mind risk, but with the drastic danger involved. One of the best ways just to give I'm leaving aside, even the

argument from the Scripture, the point of view, either in the Bible, the Koran, or other aspects of the structure of the fat molecule, each of these reasons alone suffices to keep up.

Well, now is the point that I'd like to get you to comment on. I think it's in this article talks about cooking, and so on. And a lot of people I'm sure are saying, Well, yes, you're talking about the severity of this kind of disease and so on. But what is the probability and are there ways in which it can be less than for example, people make the point that if, if cooked, if pork is properly cooked, then the probability or the chances of getting or the danger of getting tricking Narcissus, is is lessened. How true was that? In your opinion? Well, let me quote you here from the book written I referred to before by a doctor,

again, a specialist in the foot.

Technology

encodes the USDA leaflet number 34.

in which it says there that in a series caught in a series of 24 cases of trickiness is reported recently 2222 were set to have resulted from cooked pork.

Elsewhere in the book, he mentions also that some people have the myth that well, if you buy from a classy store, and clean

outlets, that you don't have that danger, because again, he refers to cases where trick analysis has been traced to stores or shops in very classy, so called area very rich areas, even in places like San Francisco and other places.

So the there's no question definitely that sort of cooking in itself. Leaving aside the religious aspect, the fat problem involved with the pork may help but there is no guarantee at least as far as even the most modern technology that we have in North America. Still, of course, you heard recently in our province here about the break, break out of infestation of diagnosis is Kristin, there is no guarantee that

this would really totally eliminate the chances of infestation. I like to look now at the ingredients in which pork in its products are used.

Beginning first of all with meat products. What kinds of caution should be observed about these kinds of products? Well, I hope you don't mind if I start with the obvious at least to make it clear, because I realized that some of the viewers might be for example, Muslims who immigrated relatively recently to the Western they should be aware of this terms. Some are not totally clear on but of course when you buy fresh meat, you avoid anything that has the name on it like pork, bacon,

ham

in buying things from the store, like for example salami, or hot dogs or pastrami, one has to make sure that it doesn't simply say all meats because this could be all kinds of meats there, but it must be pure beef or 100% fee for all beef type of product but of course pork, ham and bacon should be avoided at all costs. But others one can make

sure that it's it's 100% beef, or like some frankfurters or hotdogs are made of Turkey, for example, if you want to make sure that by reading the ingredients carefully, that doesn't contain other,

you know pork, or large, what about other types of company, for example, things that you might order in a restaurant, for example, when you have to be careful, but it's not an impossible task. For example, in many restaurants where they have, for example, steaks, when the steak is just made without any wine on it, some use cooking wine, you just have regular steak and barbeque or whatever, marinated.

Without using wine, like I said, on chocolate, there's no difficulty with that. Just make sure that it's put on a clean grill that doesn't have any lard on it, for example from previous

cooking. But this is usually the case because most of the stores where they have this steaks, it's usually beef steaks, there's no problem with that. A chicken cooked chicken if there is no large used in cooking, or garnishing, for that matter. Or if it's fried in 100%

vegetable oil, there's no problem actually, some outlets claim that they always use 100%

vegetable oil in frying chicken, french fries, the same thing if pure vegetable oil is used in in cooking, they should not be much very problem with that. If you For example, order something like breakfast, this is something that you have to watch for either. You can have poached eggs, boiled eggs.

If you really want to have fried eggs, you make sure it's fried in butter or vegetable oil, not really containing any remains, or leftover of pork or large used by other customers has to be in a clean separate

distro it's not impossible, but it requires a person to not to fish it quite frankly. And then just to go and politely ask

I guess this question of being able to distinguish which food products

and which items contain merit is a very major problem, particularly for Muslims in an area of say like Nova Scotia or other areas where the Muslim community is relatively small and people are not perhaps that careful about don't have the same sensitivities as Muslims would have to the whole situation.

I wonder perhaps you could comment in terms of how, you know some helpful suggestions perhaps in terms of how the people you can distinguish those foods which contain lard. Okay, I think the best recommendation really is to carefully read the ingredients before buying anything until you know which brands are safe. But the major problem

lies in the nature of shortening because shortening goes into almost any product in lost productivity is there. One of these things is to read, for example, whether it says if it says animal fat on the ingredients, then there's a chance that it may contain large because animal includes also pick at least insofar as the classification goes

on unless it says specifically beef fat or beef tallow or marine oils or something like that, then you can make sure it has to be purely like that.

If the term used in the ingredients list is shortening period against shortening could be anything it could be possibly

vegetable oil, animal fat combination. So one has to make sure that it's not simply say shortening but either 100% or fewer or all vegetable oil. This is one thing in terms of the the audience used in cooking.

So like I said by carefully reading the ingredients, it shouldn't shouldn't be hard. What about the question of bread for example?

They have to be careful in terms of right I'm glad that you raised that because some people I can say well what's what's what's the problem with the bread then they forget also that it is the practice in many bakeries, for example, to brush the loss with

with lard or shortening which may contain lard or use it even as part of the dorm making the bread but fortunately, if a person really is sensitive about it and really wants to avoid, there's no difficulty with that in any place in any location. Almost you find some places or some brands of bread, which are made of pure vegetable oil, and some chain stores. I don't want to make any free commercial to anyone but some mini chain stores they have a policy for example, that homemade bread

is always made with pure vegetable shortening.

Some people in many locations in North America hear about the so called Lebanese or Syrian bread, you know this noun, chewy bread, usually, it is made without any shortening, so that could be saved also, by bread. Usually it doesn't contain, there are some brands even, which are relatively cheaper brands in the market, which you could also find in the ingredients that it is all used. It's made of it with pure vegetable shortening, of course, in pies and cakes, and so on. The same thing would be applicable, especially in the crust, and some cakes, the crust is made with, with large. So by being careful and reading carefully before buying, it shouldn't be too hard to find substitutes, no

problem. Okay, I want to start at the beginning of the feast. Are there any

other foods that you can think of which might contain parking Greetings, like, for example, you know, things like it'd be obvious now that you check for things which would obviously contain merit in them, but are there any other foods which one might not normally be aware of may not necessarily you may not think of as having parking gradients, and one common thing like that is

gelatin

is in general gelatin.

It is made also partly of skin or marrow of elements, which may be pork, or it may be other animals. But again, there are certain brands in the market, for example, it was

communicated to me that the kinds that has k on it in a circle, that means cautious, I heard also, but I haven't been able to confirm that this is not a very difficult thing to do by writing to the manufacturers, that are some kind of synthetic type of gelatin that is doesn't have any animal base in it.

Somebody was telling me that it has the letter U on it. But this one, I am less sure than the case where we have cave. In addition to that there are some stores that carry for example,

purely kosher items, which would include Of course, the kosher General, used by the Jewish community, because they have the same kind of belief also, concerning the pork. So this gelatin would be one of the things really to

watch for. What about the situation of jealousy in drug capsules, what you're getting into very fine thing. All right, there are some You're right, some capsules, which have a capsule made of gelatin or a package anything which again, could be gelatin derived from pork or others. But I have my own tips for that. I used to take for example, vitamin A, but it's not difficult if this capsules can be opened. So what I do is just bring a glass, open the

capsule, take the powder, just put some orange juice or something on eating and drinking. So if a person really is particular about it, and they really appreciate you're raising this because it is a real problem for somebody who wants to keep pure from any pork contents. Now what about the situation of insulin, for example, is this an area where you might possibly have maybe pork used in the

ground, some claim that it's used from a extracts, I believe from the pancreas of the of the pig, but it's also used alternatively from other edible animals. So one can check for example with the pharmacist and find out what ingredients are used in manufacturing. So there's always a substitute, if one really cares, you can avoid that. But of course, if you run into a situation when the only incident available, is expected from

from porque or something like that, then there is a provision in Islam for that because that's constitute saving life, but before one jumps to that one has to find out first, if there's a wholesome substitute at all. I also understand that there may be some difficulties with cheese or there's some some of your points of cheese might be present some kind of a problem, you say the difficulty arising with the cheese is that in addition to the bacterial culture used for for making cheese, some manufacturers use a little bit of pepsin which acts more as a catalyst to help in the process of cheese making. Now it is said that the pepsin also may be derived

or usually is dried. In fact from

you know, pour contents are probably from lunch.

This is an area which led some Muslim jurists

when the things were explained to them to come up with this explanation they said first of all the information given to them is that it is only a chemical

Think it's not larger than its original form, it's just a chemical type of products. Number two, that it is used in a very, very minute amounts. And according to one was saying that the information is here is that you use something like an ounce per 10,000 pounds of cheese, that this chemical is used only as a catalyst.

And part of it just not most of it actually does not really come into the cheese itself. So on the basis of that there is more than one Muslim jurists who there are other additional reasons, although I don't want to go into all the details on this.

That's it for this very minute think and only as a catalyst and as a chemical compound other than pure, original form of lard,

that it would be permissible. However, I feel that if a person can find a substitute, I don't think there's much excuse if you feel that this area is doubtful and some jurists dispute whether it's permissible or not, it's better way to find a substitute an example of this, right in our area here, I could easily find, for example, in cheddar cheese, made simply of bacterial culture, but not using pepsin. And there are other kinds of cheese which uses vennett. And I checked with my wife, she is also

a master's in

education specializing nutrition. She said her understanding also is that it is used from edible animals not not from pork, or other edible items. So if one makes sure of that, the feta cheese, for example, that comes usually from Denmark, and sometimes it's made also in other Asian countries with white cheese. This is usually safe also, because it says it uses rennet. So even though there is a ground from some jurist verdict on cheese for this variety of reasons, given it's better actually to get a substitute, if possible at all. But it's there's no way and the final question I think we'll have time for today is looking at other kinds of immediately animals other than the ones that we've

discussed at this point other other meat eating animals that one should be careful about. Yes. In fact, according to the saying of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him in both Bukhari and Muslim the most authentic sources of Hadith. He said that animals just translated in the simple way. Birds or animals that are meat eating are also forbidden to Muslims. Things like hawks for example, and similar crows, as well as meat eating animals like lions, tigers, and so on, which is very consistent with the previous discussion that you had on the difference between meat eating and vegetarian.

Well, we'll conclude our program at that for today. We want to thank you for watching. We want to invite you back next week when we'll look at the question of intoxicants. Thank you for watching. Assalamu alaikum peace beyond you