Moral Teachings of Islam 8 – Diet General

In the name of God the benevolent the Merciful, the creator and Sustainer of the universe, peace and blessings forever upon his servant and messenger Muhammad amin, I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except for the one true God. And I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger and servant of God. I greet you with the universal greetings of peace. The greetings that have been used by all the profits from Abraham to Prophet Muhammad sallahu wa Salaam or peace be upon them all. Assalamu Aleikum, which means peace be unto you. I'm your host Hamlet Rashid. Today we have our eighth program in our series on the moral teachings of Islam. We'll continue with our discussion of

prohibitions or unlawful acts and the moral code of Islam. I have joining me on the program as usual. Dr. Jamal betawi of St. Mary's University, brother Jamal Assalamu alaikum on income cinema. I wonder perhaps you could just to take a few minutes to go back to our program. Last week, when we began our discussion on the prohibitions on the moral code, looking at some of them off will actually just highlight some of the main points that we touched upon and that program, especially what by the face of the church, again, brother Hamlet, we mentioned that the main criteria for lawful and unlawful and Stan is basically the objectives of Islamic law or Sharia. And that has been

summarized to include five basic areas to safeguard faith, life, mind, owner, and property. And then we started dealing with each of these objectives and some of the measures,

things to avoid or fight in order to achieve those objectives. And last time, we started first with shirk, as wave protection of faith. And we said the check which Islam regard as a moral sin means to associate others with God not only to believe in other gods, but to associate others with God in His divine attributes and qualities. And we said that this was regarded as mortal sin not only by Islam, but according to the Quran by all the prophets, and he quoted many of the prophets in the past who have been also teaching the very same thing according to the Quran.

Secondly, we talked about other issues,

which should relate also to the protection of faith like avoiding sorcery,

divination, and all types of things that shows belief in powers other than the power of gods.

We talked about tyranny that is fighting tyranny, and religious oppression. And that's in relevance to the concept of jihad and Islam. Because again, that's a way of protecting faith against those who want to deprive people from the right according to the Quran to believe in what they choose to believe.

And then we start discussing the second main objective, the protection of life or nuts. First, we discussed the Quranic

citations dealing with are some of the chronic citations, I should say, dealing with prohibition of killing and the sanctity of human life.

We talked also about capital punishment very briefly as it relates to

measures, in fact, to discourage people from

killing others.

We talked briefly about other interference in human life, such as suicide, abortion,

and similar acts like euthanasia. And we said all of these are also not approved or regarded as unlawful and stamp. And that's basically where we stopped last time and this scheme of things, right. But we were about to run out of time we were about to go on and to touch on like this whole question of social injustice. And I'm wondering if perhaps you could just explain the connection between

safeguarding human life and this whole question of social injustice, in terms of how it relates, how they, how they relate to how social justice relates to the question, what I classified that here as part of protection of, of life also, because in Islamic law, when you talk about sanctity of life or protection of life,

It means more than simply keeping the person alive in some form, but to keep the person alive in some dignified way too,

in a static law, for example,

relating to the protection of life, those minimum guarantees, supposedly, if you have a truly just a standard society, minimum guarantee of each individual and society in terms of his or her basic needs, which include food, clothing, shelter, means of transportation, and according to some Muslim jurists, even tools for the trade, so that the person can live in a dignified way. Now, the presence of greed and society, the presence of inequalities in the distribution of income,

the presence of exploitation of people who are really not getting as much as they should for their work just to enrich the pockets of others. This are regarded them as some aspects of social injustice that would threaten the achievement of safeguarding of the life

of individual human beings. Of course, we're not talking in terms of any sort of

totalitarian system, Islam does not accept the notion of everybody getting the same pay, or everybody can see with the same income, of course, there will be variations. But what Islam really is against is the serious inequality is the lack of justice, which makes some people suffer a great deal and not being able to even to have the minimum and basic requirements of life. That's why it was put there. It's part of the Islamic law, legislation, how about the dietary regulations in Islam? Would they relate to this category of safeguarding life and practically you just comment a bit on what the dietary regulations are? Okay, in fact, just for the shortness of specified that,

the question is diet should have come here also. Because, again,

from Islamic perspective, dietary regulations relate also to protection of neffs or life,

to protect the person not on the life and having basic needs, but also in good health. That's also part of the objectives of Islamic law.

The connection here is that, as we mentioned last time, the basic philosophy of unlawful Islam, like I said before, it's not the provision or punishment of people. But as the Quran puts it, you should do nothing with it. But when you have them on a massage is that lawful and wholesome things are made lawful unto them, and unclean or harmful things are made unlawful. So the there is no punishment for it. So it relates here in that sense.

In order to get specifically to your question, as to what are those specific dietary regulations, we refer again to the Quran, the book of God. And most of the prohibited diets.

Almost all are mentioned in one verse in chapter five, verse four, I'll just go through the English translation for shortness of time,

forbidden to you for foods, that's to all Muslims,

that meets

blood,

the flesh of swine,

and that are that animal on which has been invoked the name of other than God,

that which has been killed by strangling or animals killed by strangulation,

or by a violent blow

or by a headlong fall

or being gored to death.

That which has been partly eaten by a wild animal,

unless you are able to slaughter it in due form,

that which is sacrificed on stone altar or altars.

Forbidden also is the divination is the division of read by raffling with arrows, that is impiety.

See, in the in one single verse, you have a whole lot of credit categories, perhaps it makes sense to go through some of them and explain more clearly what exactly they refer to first of all, the word start by mentioning

or actually includes mention of things that relate to this category here of protection of life. But some of the points or prohibitions in that verse, in fact relate also to protection of faith that we have mentioned already. For example, animals dedicated to it.

Or

when it's called a name other than the name of God is invoked. This is mainly protection of faith rather than helps really, because just symbolically of

monotheism.

But the other categories mentioned in that verse, indeed related protection of life. Let's look at them. It says, first of all, the dead, or the flesh of an animal, which died of itself without being properly slaughtered with some kind of, or some form of bloodletting.

Now, when you inquire as to Hawaii,

there might be some obvious answers to that question, first of all, in terms of our human tendencies, even with one really prefer to get an animal swollen, dead, and eat it in terms of our human nature, again, Allah or God has created us to keep away from this thing that might have potential harm, the harm of that could be

of different types. When an animal is dead, it's there, you find it that even if it's edible, like your maternal cow, or whatever,

it's difficult to know why this animal died. Maybe it died, because of some contagious or dangerous disease, which might be carried over to eat it. Maybe the animal died after it ate some poisonous plant, which I can could be dangerous for you to eat.

I'm not a medical doctor. But we know also that when the animal dies, they the blood congeals in the vessels, it doesn't get out. And we are told also by scientists, that blood is the one of the best if not the best medium for the growth of bacteria. So there you go there any germs, or any harm, the blood really would be the best

filter source where this can grow and multiply its harm to a person who eats it. That's why the lifting of the blood is very essential.

Of course, you might want that here. How about fish? Do you have to slaughter or kill fish? The answer is no fish in particular is exempt from that. In fact, in one of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, he said that two things, or two things that things has been allowed unto us and he mentioned fish, and the Locust, some people, some areas, it also locusts.

Which means that you don't have to get the fish in bloodletting, because there is much blood really, in the fish anyway.

Provided again, that if the fish has been there for some time, and there's fear that it might be going bad or something steady,

that doesn't mean that it's permissible unto you because it hurt you. But you don't have to stop there.

The other thing that the verse you mentioned, is blood,

flowing blood. You might want that who drinks blood. But you'd be surprised. There are some commentators on the Quran who mentioned that, in the pre Islamic days, some people used to go to the animal, make an injury, take some of the blood, drink it. And this way, of course, they drink the blood, they benefit from it, and they did the animal

live,

which of course, from the standard point of view is a cruel act to do to the animal.

In addition, of course, there could be some harm. I'm not sure that but there could be possibly harm of just taking raw blood or drinking like that, or Canada could be blue, for example, exactly what could be

done exception to that, of course, is the case which is mentioned in the same saying of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, which I mentioned before, things like organ meats, like liver, or spleen, for example, he mentioned those specifically, this would be permissible, they're not really flowing blood, even though they might have contents or some of the elements included in the blood, but other than that, you can just go on drinking blood like to. Then there is another category, there's the animal which is strangled, strangled, or strangulated. Now, the same problem arises here when the animal is triangulated. There are two things. First, it is cruelty to the animal to

strangulated to death. And number two, again, the blood doesn't get out and some of the difficulties again that you mentioned before, could be involved there. Another category the Quran mentions that you cannot eat the meat of an animal which died out of a violent blow. Again, that's cruelty. I remember once seeing a film where people were killing animals for food, I think you can picture something holding big heavy sticks and keep hitting the animal on its head until it collapses. So if for nothing else is

It's not for the harm of the blood to come out, aside from the fact of course, that Muslims are permitted to eat pork anyway, any animal should not be treated like that the cruelty to the animal at the time of slaughter,

it mentions the animal that falls, has hit headlong fall, let's say from announced or something and dies again because of the same difficulty with not letting the the plant out.

The other category was the animal which is partly eaten by a wild animal. Again, when a wild animal hunts a deer, for example, and eat part of it, it's very difficult sometimes to tell how long this meat has been has been there. And there could be also possibility of communication of the disease or problems through the

saliva of the of the, of the animal. The only exception made here that if you reach the animal while he was still alive, just injured to something, but when still alive, then you can slaughter it and let the blood out and then it could be possibly be permissible. And then of course, there is an important category mentioned there. That's the swine flesh, which I feel is a big topic by itself.

Before we deal with this prohibition, which is probably one of the most widely known

elements of the dietary regulation of Muslims, most people are aware of the fact that Muslims don't eat pork. But before we deal with that whole question, I'd like to ask you a couple of other perhaps questions related to this whole question of diet, particularly knowing about hunting, for example. I'm sure our viewers have mentioned it as well, what is the position regarding hunting? Right? Well, hunting would be permissible also, in Islam, just like fishing, the difficulty that may arise, of course in hunting is that you may not have enough time to just get the animal hold it and put it down and start stuffing because, you know, it's not accessible, like other domestic animals that are

used for food. But some of the major conditions of hunting to be legitimate, and Islam is number one, that a person should use something that would induce bloodletting when he or she hands, an arrow, some sharp things, I suppose that the bullet also in a way could also do the job because it causes also bleeding of the of the animal

a second

condition.

By the way, before I leave that, Islam, they have no objection on using stunning things. And it says, If you stand an animal, for example, to knock a market unconscious, to reduce the pain at the time of slaughter, that's not necessarily objection. So in hunting, this could be one. That means that if the person hands and you can really aim, let's say, at the head or something so that the animal doesn't suffer much, it would be actually preferable to hunt this way.

A second requirement, which Muslim jurist had different interpretations, and that is that the name of God should be mentioned at the time when the person

hunts down when there's no difference in hunting, but in terms of slaughtering domestic animals, we can discuss that a little later. So the name of God should be mentioned at the time when the person would say shooting or aiming, and the arrow or whatever other tool used for, for hunting.

In addition to this, if the person is using

an animal to help in hunting, like a dog, for example, hunting dog, that dog should be trained so that it will just eat from the hunted animal by itself, you know, just bring it and the masters or whoever can give him from it. She should she had the training to do that, of course, is the identity of the hunter

meet with the permissible only if the hunter is either a Muslim, or one of the people of the book, largely known or commonly known as Jews and Christians because they also believe in God and there's a lot more in common between them and Islam than with other people who are atheists or you know, policies and so on. So they the hunter should be Muslim Jew or or Christian.

This is basically are these are basically the main requirements empty. In other words, you don't really have to get the animal first and slaughter it but if you reach the hunted animal, you should add the G for example. And you reach the animal while still alive, it's still better to

let the blood out and just you know, cabana we were saying earlier that it's not permissible to to take an animal eat an animal, it's been strangled. So that would lead me to believe that there are

specific regulations or procedures related to the whole question of how to kill an animal or slaughtering your pets comment on that? Oh, yes, well, first of all, the person who is killing an animal in this case, let's generalize and talk about the more common case of domestic animals killed for food. First of all, must use a sharp tool. The idea behind it is to make

the killing of the animal

fast and less painful as you know, less painful as as as possible. Yeah. And also, the sharpness of the tool would help lead the blood out and speed the process.

As to the specific way of cutting.

Most jurists, Muslim jurists would agree that the best way for cutting is to cut the throat, slit the throat, and the two main arteries around

the inside that again,

make the suffering released to the animal.

I mentioned before when we were talking about hunting, the question of mentioning the name of God, like I said, in hunting, you have to mention the name of God because you can do it there's no problem when you already shooting.

As far as mentioning the name of God at the time of slaughtering

domestic animals.

Some jurist interpret what I mentioned about this as requiring as an absolute condition for me to be legitimate, that the name of God would dimensioned at the time of killing these animals like saying Bismillah R Rahman Rahim in the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

Other jurist believe that if a person forgets to mention the name of God, it's permissible, but if you deliberately Leave it, then the meat is unlawful.

It's still another opinion also, jurist opinion is that dimension of the name of God is essential. But it doesn't have to be at the time of slaughter, if you can do it. Like for example, when you buy meat which are slaughtered by your Christian, that's people who have believed in God.

But they did not mention it exactly the same way. They said, you could mention that at the time, when you start eating the animal. There are lots of details as to the justification and source of

Islamic law for each of these interpretation. For example, in the book I showed last time, the top two programs are lawful and unlawful Islam by Dr. Yusuf qaradawi mentioned some of these there are other differences. So the question of mentioning the name again, is there it is preferable However, if it's possible at all, Muslim, small Muslim community, even living together to try to arrange

to have the animal started properly with the invocation of the name of God if it's at all possible, but there are both interpretations on this. A third aspect also in

in killing an animal, or the etiquette of slaughter, even is that it should be done

as humanely as possible. Of course, you sometimes wonder if you made a killing. But after all, God has made those animals serviceable to us. And in the scheme of creation, God has created every higher creatures using lower creatures, for example, plants are eaten by animals, animals are eaten by human beings. Unfortunately, this is not a clinical sample, human beings are eating each other. But that's not

right. But on the other hand, if you live this animals, you don't hunt them, they might die.

They might die suffering even So in a way, once sometimes feel bad, really, when you have in your mind the image of an animal being stunted. So the best that could be done, since God has permitted us to eat the meat of those animals is not to kill wantonly, just without any for sports. You will kill animals when it's needed for sustaining and improving the health of human beings which humans are the crown of creation of gods. But it doesn't mean that one can do it in any way. For example, Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him in a collection of Hadees by Muslim, he says that God has ordained you to be kind and everything if you can, you do it also in a nice or humane way. If you

slaughter, you do the slaughtering also in a more humane way. And he says more specifically, even to teach followers, he says, when one of you kill an animal, let him sharpen his knife, and let him put his animal in a resting position, not in a clear way.

just tick the tick it's easy. Not only this and another collection of hobbyists and hacking, he says even that one should not kill an animal in front of another animal. Once he saw a person putting an animal and getting ready to kill him and start to sharpen his knife, so the Prophet peace be upon he says, Do you want to kill her several times? You want to kill the animal several times? Would you like the animal to suffer that much by watching, you sharpen that knife, which means that that man could possibly know what is going to happen to him. So that's quite clearly.

One should not drag the animal for example, in a curwood way. And like I mentioned earlier, stunning is not objectionable in Islam, like some people use, for example, a stunning gun kind of needed, that hits the brain, or even a bullet that doesn't kill the animal, it knocks down the animal unconscious subdues the animal and hopefully might reduce the pain provided, of course, that animal should be cut immediately before it dies out of that standing. So there's no objection to that.

It should be indicated here also, that for Muslims living, for example, in societies which are predominantly non Islamic or non Muslim societies,

that God has allowed Muslims to eat the food of the People of the Book unless it's forbidden for a specific reason, like pork, for example. In fact, in the Koran in chapter five, verse five, it says, today, lawful and wholesome things has been permitted to you. And the food

of the People of the Book, that's the food of Jews and Christians is allowed unto you and your food is allowed unto them, provided like I said, there is no explicit prohibition. of that. But a Muslim cannot eat, for example, meat slaughtered by an atheist, or a polytheist. Taken, for example,

the two minutes or so that we have remaining today's program, I wonder if you could clarify whether or not it's permissible to use for example, bones or hides of animals that have that are dead,

or these kinds of things are permissible, the prohibitions that we discussed in this program, really relate to things that are prohibited for food, that you should not consume it as food, but Islam does not forbid you from using

like I said, the heights or bones of those animals for other purposes other than food, there is actually more than one saying of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him which justifies this or given evidence of that, for example,

in Bukhari and Muslim to collections of the sake of the Prophet peace be upon him,

he passed by a dead

lamp and he said, Why don't you take the highest, cleaning it or scan it and use it? They said it's dead or messenger of Allah. He said, All right, but God has forbidden only eating the those that animals and another saying of the prophet in activism, he says any hired witches tent is cleaned. And he says any did not meet even specify, that has led some jurors but not all Muslims are some jurist, even to interpret that even the skin of animals which are forbidden, like like pork, for example, may be used not for food, but let's say for making shoes or some other, not all of them are dead. But Some even say that text of the prophetic saying does not forbid you from benefiting but

it's mainly again, like we said earlier, it's basically protection of

life and health of the individual but not to deprive them from other use.

close our program for today. We want to invite you back next week. Thank you for watching Islam and focus Assalamu alaikum peace be unto you