A Few Examples of the Food we Trust and What it Really is!
Submitted by Mohammed Gilani on
When we were studying at Waterval Islamic Institute (Mia’s Farm)
we used go to a farm on a Friday (a holiday for us) to slaughter
chickens for an Ustaadh of ours. On one occasion we found that a
non-Muslim worker of a Moosa Bhai from Fordsburg, also used to
come and slaughter his chickens! We asked Moosa bhai about it?
He said, I get tired, so what must I do?!
A person of your
neighbourhood whom you trust, that he is slaughtering by himself
and it is halaal yet this is the condition. Then what to say about
commercially slaughtered chickens of the big commercial plants?!
My Ustaadh, Hadhrat Mufti Sanjalvi Saheb (Rahimahullah) use to say when a
thing is done for commercial gain, scant regard is given to it being
actually halaal. On one occasion when we discussing this subject in a country town,
one person said that he gave his car for service, when he went to
collect it, it was not yet ready.
He waited outside, he saw a black
women coming from across the road with a plastic packet. Being
his customer in his shop and knowing her, he asked her from where
she was coming and what was in the plastic packet? She was
working in one of the fast food outlets that sold ‘halaal’ chickens.
She said the chickens were finished so I went to buy more. He said,
“These are not halaal.” She said what must I do?
The same person said his daughter was studying in Pretoria. They
were visiting her on a Saturday night and decided to eat out. They
ordered their food and while waiting for the food (just to make
conversation) they asked the person behind the counter what does
this ‘halaal’ sign mean?
He said it means ‘peri peri’ i.e. that it is
spiced. If that is his understanding of halaal, what halaal are they
serving?
A new restaurant in the UK, many years ago, became known for the
kebaabs it sold, people use to come from far and wide to eat the
kebaabs here. When the refuse people came to collect the refuse
they found a huge amount of empty dog food tins. They thought
there can’t be so many dogs on one premises. Anyway they took
away all the tins. The next week they found again so many tins of
dog food! They reported this to the health department.
On
investigation they found that they were making those kebaabs with
meat that was meant for dog feed!
At a family gathering in Lenasia, the ladies went on strike that we
are not cooking, get some take away food. Pizzas were bought,
when they sat down to eat, a little girl showed her mother a bundle
of hair, the mother hushed it up and told her to keep quiet and carry on eating! After a little while she found another bigger bundle of
hair. Now everyone noticed it and nobody could carry on eating!
A person travelling through the Free State, where Indians were not
allowed to reside during the apartheid era, saw a shop with a
‘halaal’ sign displayed outside. He stopped to buy some food. He
found the owner to be a white non-Muslim man. He asked him how
he comes by halaal food? He said I don’t know what is ‘halaal’;
however, since I have put this board up, I see my sales have
increased tremendously.
He regarded it to be a Taweez (amulet),
by the blessings of which sales increase! If this is the understanding
of halaal, what can we expect? But how sad that today’s Muslim is
more than satisfied when he sees a ‘halaal’ sign!
A famous Islamic Organization even certified pork to be halaal.
يا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ كَلُوا مِمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ حَلَالًا طَيْبًا
"O mankind! Eat from what is on the earth (that is) halāl and tayyib (pure and wholesome)
Kitaabut Ta'aam - Hazrat Moulana Abdul Hamid Saab (Daamat Barakaatuh)