Waleed Basyouni – Can A Muslim Eat Foods Made with Gelatin

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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.

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