Friday, October 31, 2008

Halal VS Haram

I got a book, "Halal Food Processing", from the library today. It discuss about Halal food and how they're suppose to be Halal, as from the Quran. Haram means prohibited, and another term is called 'Makrooh' which means dislikeable (a.k.a grey zones).

Some points to share are:

Meats certified Halal are animals that are killed while pronouncing the name of God, but does not hold true for fishes. Dead animals are Haram, but fishes are Halal in a way that "it is left to die a natural death" when removal from water. Unlike land animal, dead sea animals are permitted with reference to a tradition of a dead whale being a blessing by the God for food. As with fishes, some Muslims consider fishes without scales to be Haram.

Animals are NOT to be killed by stunning, but can be stunned unconscious first. It is not encouraged as the blood draining might not be as fast/complete compare to just killing the animals when it is conscious...with the fast heartbeat and all...

Sharp blade to ensure swift death and complete blood draining; whereby the jugular veins, carotid arteries, trachea and esophagus are to be cut.

No sharpening of knife in front of the animals to be killed, nor kill other animals in the presence of other animals, and no killing by severing of head.

Dismemberment while animals are still alive are not allowed (eg removal of horns). Scaling of fishes are to be carried out only when its completely dead. With reference from the book, it is sometimes a practice of some fast pace commercial slaughterhouse to start removing the horns, ears and front legs while the animal still seem to be alive...

Consumption of carnivorous animals with fangs (eg dogs and cats) and birds of prey are No No. Birds of prey are like eagle, refering to bird holding their food with claws. As with animals able to live on land and water like turtles cannot be consumed too. This is puzzling as some Muslims I knew ate crabs...maybe crabs are under the 'Makrooh' section...

And there's this rule to "Avoid the doubtful". Therefore if there's doubt about a restaurant not being Halal, forget about asking a Muslim friend to join in. After reading this book, I think I know how to appreciate the Islamic teachings from a whole new level, at least for the food part.

Axel blogged at 11:59 PM