Saad Tasleem – Veganism In Islam

			So first question is,
		

			I'm told that you get a lot of questions about vegetarianism.
		

			Not a lot, but a fair amount of questions. Okay. I'm curious. And this is different than the
question of being vegan. No, I mean, vegan vegetarian, this actually comes up in the class because
we talk about personal preferences of the prophets, I send them, okay. And we talked about how you
can have personal preferences, that Sam doesn't have a stance on, okay, right. So
		

			sometimes the issue that's it's, it's, it's allowed, Sam doesn't say yea, or nay, it's just
something which is permissible. And so you can have your personal preference, just like, you choose
to wear a particular type of shirt, because it's, it's your style, right? And some doesn't really
care. So people, you know, and then sometimes people ask, like, Look, you know, Is it wrong to be
vegan or vegetarian? Because it's my personal preference, okay. But some might argue the opposite,
right? They might say, hey, it's actually better to be vegan or vegetarian. Is that to be consuming
all this animal meat? Right, exactly. So that's when we that's, that's when we that's where we have
		

			to differentiate the two and say, Look, are you when you say better? Are you speaking from a
religious perspective? Because if that's the case, and you need evidence for that, were like in the
Koran or the sun. Now we're told, hey, don't eat meat, and it's better, right? And there's nothing
like that. But if you're saying, look, for me, I choose not to eat it, or because of how animals are
treated today, or for an extra reason. And as long as you're not attributing it to Islam, think oh,
Islam tells me I have to do so to not necessarily make it a religious reason. Right, or attach
spiritual significance to it. Exactly. So someone says, look,
		

			you know, Sam tells me not to be crude, and wasn't the norm right now in the meat industry, is that,
you know, there's a lot of cruelty towards animals. So because of that, I, you know, I choose not to
eat meat. So that's very different than saying, hey, eating meat is bad. Or, for example, somebody
says, Oh, it's bad to kill me.
		

			Oh, because animals have feelings and exact thing like that. Exactly. But that's something of a
religious significance. Yeah. Okay. That's fine. So we have differentiate between the two. Me
personally, yeah. about vegetarianism or veganism. Yeah. Well, I, I personally hold like, for me, it
goes back to an issue of I mean, it's a feed in factors, obviously, we should care about how animals
are treated. Right. So if that's the solution, which I don't know, it is that, hey, if you stop
eating meat, then we'll can make a difference in the meat industry. I don't know that to be the
case. And it could be right. I'm just not, I would say very openly, I'm not informed enough to make
		

			that decision or to, to come to that conclusion.
		

			But from a health perspective, Islam always is for moderation. So look, you know, we know that when
we eat
		

			a lot of red meat. Yeah. It's not healthy. Red Meat is a particular classification. Exactly. So for
me, I'm like, okay, so that I can I totally get that, you know, moderation in red meat.
		

			Especially with a sedentary lifestyle. Exactly. Right. And what about this kind of meat, right? Like
this? What will this fall under? They're so beautiful, man. Why would you do anything to them? Well,
they actually want us to get rid of them. We were actually joking here, about how I was like, yeah,
let's set up a barbecue. I know a friend who has a Vietnamese duck recipe.
		

			I don't know, man, you know, I'm just look, I don't, I believe that there's an Islamic way to
slaughter, which is totally merciful towards animals and all that. I'm just personally. Like, if I
see an animal being killed, I have a tough time eating that animal that's totally has nothing to do
with Islam. It's just a personal thing. I remember. When I was a kid, we slaughtered a goat for ate
rice. And I remember, like, a very vivid memory where, you know, we're, um, we're like playing with
this goat. Right? And then we got to slaughter it. And then, like, an hour later, there's like, some
food made, and there's like me, I'm like, wait a minute, I was just playing with this dude. And
		

			like, psychologically, that messed me up because I was like, I can't eat this. Because my sister
during the we had we went to India, we had some goats that are playing around with it. And then the
goats disappear. Right. And then, and, you know, we had cooked it started to everybody. And my
sister's like, Where's the goat? My dad's like, it's in your plate. Oh, man. That's pretty much what
happened to me. And so like, I couldn't bring myself to eat that. You know, but but that's just
that's just me. I don't know that was creeping up on you.