Sallam Muslimah, now that we are busy eating we would like to remind you the importance of eating Halal foods.
Eat any foods which are lawful (halal) and good (thoyyib) is a compulsory for every Muslim as Allah orders in the Quran (5:88): “And eat of the things which Allah has provided for you, lawful and good, and fear Allah in Whom you believe”. Please bear in your mind that halal and thoyyib are actually a unity. If a food is halal that must also be thoyyib, but if the food is thoyyib, it is not necessarily halal. However, if the food is not thoyyib, consequently the food is not halal. For example, poisonous foods are not halal, since they are not thoyyib. Another example, if chicken is slaughtered in Islamic way then the chicken is halal provided that the meat is still fresh, however, if the chicken is let in room temperature for some time so that it is already deteriorated, then this chicken is not halal anymore.
Looking for halal things is a compulsory for Muslims as ordered by the prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) as he stated in the hadith narrated by Ibnu Mas’ud: Searching of halal things is a compulsory for every Muslim. Therefore, it is no doubt that we must select our foods, the foods we select must be halal and thoyyib.
Once, a companion asked Rasulullah (p.b.u.h) what he should do so that his prayer (du’a) is granted by Allah, the Prophet answered: Revise your foods; surely Allah will fulfil your prayer (Hadith narrated by Ath-Thabrani). On the other hand, Rasulullah (p.b.u.h) stated: How many people with dirty hair and clothes due to long trip raised their hands and prayed O Allah,O Allah, but their foods, clothes and life came from haram materials, how their prayer will be granted? (Hadith narrated by Muslim). So, just because of consumption of haram foods, our prayer will not accepted and granted by Allah.
There is a strong warning from Rasulullah (p.b.u.h) if we consume haram foods, he said: Any flesh of our body grown from haram materials will go to the hell as the appropriate place for it (Hadith narrated by At-Thurmudzi). Imagine, just because of haram foods we can go to the hell, therefore, no matter great is our deeds, they may be pointless so long what we eat and drink are haram materials. Therefore, we have to protect our self and family from the hell fire, by consuming halal foods only.
In this modern era, food technology has developed so sophisticated so that the type of foods are greatly varied where these foods are prepared from thousands of ingredients with many of which either haram, or doubtful (masbooh or syubhat, i.e., whether they are halal or haram). Therefore, again, we have to select carefully what we eat and what we drink. We should not ignore our foods, unless we are ready to touch the hell fire. We not only have to be extra vigilance, but also need knowledge of halal foods. Increase our knowledge on halal foods and ask religious scholar and halal food expert are two things that we can do.
