Waleed Basyouni – Can A Muslim Eat Foods Made with Gelatin
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the use of gelatin in various foods, including animal feed and food, and its potential harm to certain groups. They suggest that gelatin should not be used in certain circumstances and that most people may not be affected. The process of transformation of gelatin into new products is discussed, including the potential risks of harm if used in certain conditions. Viewers are encouraged to ask questions through AskTheImam At The commodity.com.
AI: Summary ©
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Bismillah alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Rasulullah
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As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
This is a question regarding food.
Is gelatin permissible?
Bismillah alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Rasulullah.
Is it allowed to use gelatin or enzymes
in basically taking out, I would assume gelatin
that is taken from animals and to make
candies or food or anything like that.
Is it allowed to use gelatin in any
type of food?
In regard to this, gelatin can be taken
from source which is vegetarian like some plants
and obviously that is allowed.
Or it can be taken from animals that
they were, they are halal to eat and
they were Islamically correct or they were slaughtered
according to Islamic code.
And that would be allowed.
But obviously in the modern world today, especially
for us who live in the west, most
of gelatin comes from animals.
Either it is going to be from a
harm source like pork and that is very
common or from animal.
They were not necessarily to be slaughtered according
to Islamic code or dead animal.
So here we say that will take us,
let us take the animals first.
They will take us to previously we discussed
is the animals that slaughtered in non-Muslims
countries like Christian majority consider halal or not.
And I do believe it is considered halal.
But is these enzymes taken from animals who
slaughtered or just dead animals?
We do not really know.
So there is a big question mark.
So let us assume it is among the
category which is non-slaughtered haram.
So you have pork, you have animal.
What is the ruling regard to those?
The vast majority in the modern scholars, the
Majma' al-Fiqh al-Islami and the Muslim
Council of Fiqh and even Amjad, a Muslim
jurist in North America, all agreed that if
the gelatin come from pork or come from
animals that were not slaughtered Islamically, according to
Islamic code, are not allowed to be used.
Are not allowed to be used.
Also they said any type of enzymes or
any part of these animals used in the
food as part of the process and it
is still the entity of it exist, okay,
it is not dissolved completely by the new
product.
It is still, it is not allowed.
But if it is a small amount and
it is completely observed, disappeared, like let us
say you take a piece of enzymes or
skin and completely observed not exist, they said
if it is very small and completely observed,
it will be allowed.
Some of the Fuqaha use the word stuhlik
and that is also the fatwa of the
Majma' al-Fiqh and the Muslim Council of
Fiqh.
Completely absorbed by the majority of.
Whatever the process of the food is.
But the gelatin here, that is the majority.
There are some other scholars actually counter this
position, minority, and I lean toward the minority
opinion in this, which is I do believe
that gelatin, if it is stay as it
is, okay, if the enzyme that was taken
from or the fat that is taken from
the pork or this dead animal, it stay
as is, never change and can be identified
as it is.
In the new product, it is haram.
But the reality is the gelatin is a
new product.
So, and I do not think the Sharia
make the ruling according to the chemical ingredient
of the element.
Because the chemical ingredient of the element, something
beyond the average Muslim's ability and use.
But the obvious in Islam is, if it
tastes or it looks like or it smells
like pork, it is a pork.
Beyond these three, if we are going to
go to the chemical element and the analysis
of it, I do not believe that this
is what the Sharia is required.
Otherwise, the Sharia will be only fitted to
certain group of people and certain time in
history and not applicable to all people and
all time.
And that is not how the Sharia works,
the rule of Sharia works.
So, I do believe in this case, if
the gelatin is basically transferred completely to a
new entity.
It was like transformed from the original material.
Its original format of the fat, whatever, to
something new, a new product, it call jello
or it call gum or it call, you
know, whatever the product is.
In this case, or enzyme, some of these
enzymes called cheese, you know, there is nothing
in it left.
I know this is not the majority's opinion,
but in my opinion, that goes more consistent
in my opinion with the rules of Sharia.
And I say it is allowed and I
do not see haram or harm for using
it.
But obviously, if you have a choice between
two, especially in food, you can always take
the safe.
But I am saying this because also, I
do believe that some people might not take
that and people may not know about this
ruling as well.
So, it is not an issue which should
be too strict in my opinion about it.
And Allah SWT loves best.
Alright.
But, you know, there is the counter argument
where, you know, some of these substances are
not actually completely free of the original.
So, they do not really transform 100%.
And I had that argument with one of
the brothers who said his wife is allergic
to pork.
Before she was Muslim, she never ate pork.
And then, now when she eats some of
that stuff that has gelatin, if she gets
these allergies, that means there are still some
of the original.
And she does.
Yeah.
And she has some allergies to it.
So, I do not know if that is
the situation.
We will go back and see if this
allergy has to do with the chemical component
or it is because of the actual part
of it.
Original material.
So, no doubt there is a question mark
about it.
But I agree.
That is why I said, if this entity
was taken from the pork or these dead
animals, it still exists in it as part
of it.
Okay.
And it did not transfer.
Completely, like 100%.
Yeah.
It is still as an element that exists.
It is haram.
But if that element transferred to something new,
it is like when you say wine that
it is made of, that the Prophet consumed
vinegar.
The vinegar, before it became vinegar, it was
a wine.
Some of it.
I mean the one the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam consumed.
It was before because it comes from grape,
comes from whatever.
Before that, it was wine.
And before wine, it was grape, for example.
So, if we say that.
So, when it was grape, it is halal.
When it became wine, it is haram.
And when transferred to the vinegar, it became
halal.
So, you know, in this case, that is
transformation.
That is why Al-Fuqaha said, if there
is a dog fall into, imagine for example,
a place where they dye the clothes.
And that chemical transferred the dog to become
a salt.
They said that salt is halal.
Because not anymore.
But see, it is a salt.
Completely have a different entity, different, you know,
look, taste different.
Just imagine that.
So, when we say that this became a
complete different product.
But if you see this product, part of
it is the thing, it is haram.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows best
and said again, avoiding that will be the
much better option to do.
Okay.
BarakAllahu feekum.
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