pork skin?

[laian]

Bismillah ar-rahman ar-raheem


Assalamu alaikum everyone,


JazakAllah khair to whoever sent the email with the forum topics, I have a feeling it was sister Muslimah but these are some very interesting topics.


I just wanted to comment on the topic of HALAL food, there were two threads from that email that talked about this, I will post the information on this thread since it has received the most attention so far.


First of all, on the other thread, Muslimah you were questioning whether chicken was halal... any kind of "meat", not just red meat but anything that comes from an animal, even non-meat animal products, MUST be from an animal that is ZABIHAH (raised and slaughtered properly) or it is not halal. This applies to any animal, lamb, cow, chicken, etc, the only one it does not apply to is fish or other animals from the sea. And most certainly all animal products in the U.S. and probably other non-muslim countries are not halal unless they are specifically from a muslim butcher who does it halal.


Also, the point that it is ok to eat the christian's meat, this is assuming that they are slaughtering according to the original christian method, which was similar to halal, and also similar to kosher. unfortunately, the christians here do not do this anymore, and their meat/chicken is not halal. The Qu'ran gives a provision that we may eat non halal if there is nothing else available and it is a necessity... that does NOT mean if there is no other meat available, but it means if there is no other FOOD available, and there is alhamdulillah plenty of halal food from plant/vegetable sources available in this country, so there is no excuse to eat non halal meat/chicken. and I would just like to point out, for all those who think it is ok to just say "bismillah" and the food becomes halal.... the issue of eating halal meat/chicken is not trivial, in the Qur'an , surah al-Anaam (6) ayat 121 it says:


<b>And eat not of that whereon Allah's name hath not been mentioned, for lo! it is abomination. Lo! the devils do inspire their minions to dispute with you. But if ye obey them, ye will be in truth idolaters. </b>


it is an abomination to eat meat that has not had Allah's name pronounced on it. Other english translations say it is "impiety." I think that is a very serious issue, and we should all think twice before eating something that may potentially be from a non-halal source, whether it is pork or other animals. It can also be thought of as a way of greatly disrespecting Allah (swt), our creator and provider, who provided the animals to us for meat, and we cannot even be grateful enough to remember Him when slaughtering them.


Another point I would like to mention, sister Muslimah you said that it is ok to eat kosher food because jews do not consume pork products. THIS IS NOT ENTIRELY TRUE!! I really want to emphasize this because I know many people who assume that, as you did, but they do not understand the guidelines of kosher, and this is very dangerous, so please take note of this!


jews do not eat pork MEAT.... <b>but they allow any other sort of pork product</b>, such as those made from pork skin, hooves, etc. so just because something is kosher, it could still have pork product in it! the most common example of this in the U.S. is gelatin, which is used in gummy candies and yogurt... gelatin is made either from cow bones or pork skin, both of which are gelling agents. Kosher gelatin can still be made with pork skin, because the jews do not forbid eating that, they only forbid eating pork MEAT. gelatin made from cow bones is only ok IF THE COW WAS ZABIHAH, and there is usually no way of knowing that in the U.S. and it is also very unlikely anyway.


please take a look at the following site which has good information about which types of ingredients to avoid, they also give a chart of which "kosher" products are actually halal, and which are not.


Kosher vs Halal:


http://www.eat-halal.com/kosher.shtml


Ingredients to Avoid:


http://www.eat-halal.com/ingredients.shtml


that website also has lots of other good information, including a detailed description of what is ZABIHAH.


Also, here is a very interesting article about pork. If you read it then you will understand and really appreciate why Allah swt forbade pork, and even if you are not muslim you will probably not want to eat any more pork after reading this!! And note, this was not written by a muslim, but rather by the inventor of Kellogg cereals, who was a seventh day adventist (christian)


http://www.giveshare.org/Health/porkeatdanger.html


jazakAllah khair everyone for reading my post, i know it was long but as I said before, the issue of eating halal is VERY serious, and especially in non-muslim countries like the U.S. we must be extra cautious!!


inshaAllah i hope this was helpful, and may Allah swt guide us all to the right path, ameen


salam alaikum