In the name of Allaah, Most Beneficent and Most Merciful
Allah Most High says:
“O people! Eat of what is in the earth, Halal and Pure, and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Indeed, for you he is an open enemy.” (Surah al-Baqarah, 168)
Sayyiduna Abu Hurayra (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “Allah the Almighty is pure and accepts only that which is pure. Allah has commanded the faithful to do that which he commanded the Messengers, and the Almighty has said: “O Messengers! Eat of the pure things and do right”. And Allah the Almighty has said: “O you who believe! Eat of the pure things We have provided you.” Then he (Allah bless him & give him peace) mentioned (the case of) a man who, having journeyed far, is dishevelled and dusty and who spreads out his hands to the heavens (saying): “O Lord! O Lord!” —while his food is unlawful, his drink unlawful, his clothing unlawful, and he is nourished unlawfully, so how can he be answered!” (Sahih Muslim)
Thus, the food we eat has a direct effect on us. It is the primary thing that needs to be considered by a Muslim. Supplications (dua) are not accepted due to consuming unlawful food. Hence, a Muslim should abstain from that which is doubtful also.
One should also remember that, originally all things are permissible unless proven to be unlawful (al-Asl fi al-Ashya al-Ibaha), however, the case with meat is different, in that it is unlawful until proven to be Halal.
The proof on this is the narration of Adi ibn Hatim (Allah be pleased with him) already quoted where he said to the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace): “O Messenger of Allah! At times, I let go of my hunting dog but I find with it another dog and I am unaware which of the two hunted the animal? The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “Don’t eat (from the hunted animal), for you have pronounced the name of Allah on your dog and not on the other.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, no 5486)
This Hadith clearly indicates that when there is doubt in the animal being Halal, it will be unlawful to consume it, which signifies that meat is originally unlawful (hurmah) until proven to be Halal. Had it been originally Halal, the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) would not have ordered Adi (Allah be pleased with him) to abstain from consuming it.
This also serves as an answer to those who state that the organization certifying products as “Halal” is responsible, and thus, any sins for eating the chickens will go to the certifying organization. It is the responsibility of every individual that he/she investigates the authenticity of such statements and then consumes the meat.
Moreover, if one did that which was in one’s capacity (i.e. investigating), then although the sin for consuming Haram meat may not be committed but the effects of eating Harm will still remain. This effect, as stated previously, will have its toll on one’s worship, Dua, and on life in general.
Many muslims in the west and also in Saudi Arabia [which imports chicken products from Brazil and Australia] do not care how the chicken are slaughtered. They get deceived by the labels of Halal and get satisfied.
The fact is that all the chicken are slaughtered in the mechanical slaughter plants. The process of slaughter involves stunning [electric shock to chicken’s head], rotor blade cutting the chicken [often missing the neck or removing the head completely] and remaining in the scalding tank with intestines intact for defeathering. The speed of the process line is so fast [120 to 140 chicken per minute] that it is practically impossible for reciting tasmiya [Bismillah Allahuakbar] for every chicken.
The motivation behind adopting a process which will make the chicken haraam and unsuitable to eat is the love and greed of wealth. The slaughterers can slaughter more chicken while employing less people. The chicken production is more, there by reducing the chicken prices, which will allow the restaurants and meat sellers buy more at cheaper price and sell it at good price. The muslims who are buying it are not interested to go more than label deep in their investigation because they really dont care about the effects of eating Haraam.
When i spoke to the distributors [muslim] about why they dont sell the Hand cut Zabiha halal, they said that the demand for chicken is so huge that they cannot cater to the demand, if they hand slaughter. They also said that if they hand cut the chicken, the chicken price will go high and they cannot sustain themselves in the market where the meat sellers and restaurants want the chicken at a lesser price. If they dont sell machine cut, then the meat sellers and restaurants will get it from other sources. The Question to ponder on is that ” Why the restaurants and meat sellers dont care much about the Zabiha Halal???” The answer is that muslims who buy from them dont care. The muslims have become so complacent in what they eat that there is no demand for Zabiha Halal Hand Cut chicken.
The market always caters to the demand as the motivation for the businesses is to make money. We as muslims should stop consuming the machine slaughtered chicken keeping in mind, how it effects our ibaadat and connection with Allah. We should also strive to push for Hand Cut Zabiha halal chicken in our halal stores by raising awareness among muslims and speaking to the businesses about it. Of Course, for some muslims we might have start with explaining the importance of deen…..
Here are few videos which show the process of machine slaughter for further awareness:
COMMENTS