A Mars a day helps you work, rest and sin

[psyah]

Re: A Mars a day helps you work, rest and sin

@cricketplaya

No, it is NOT haram!!!

** I have found three opinions concerning cheese made with animal rennet.

Q1) One is that since the rennet is haram, the cheese is haram.

Q2) Another is that since the rennet doesn’t remain a part of the cheese- it is only used to separate the curds from the whey, the cheese is halal.

Q3. Another is that the Prophet (saws) ate cheese, therefore it is halal. I am not clear about this particular one and would like to find out in more detail, i.e. was this cheese made using animal rennet?

So, is cheese/whey made using animal rennet halal or haram, according to the Hanafi School?**

** A1**. In the Hanafi School, rennet obtained from an animal slaughtered by a non-Muslim or Muslim in accordance with Islamic law or contrary to it, in all cases is permissible, as long as the animal in question is not a pig.

Most well informed people are adamant that rennet, which is used to make cheese, is not derived from pigs.

** A2**. Rennet, Rennin as an enzyme is used in the food industry for the preparation of cheese by curdling milk. The only way to know whether the source of rennet is animal, plant or microbe is to ask the food industry about it or have it written on the label.

The lawfulness of rennet does not depend on the slaughterer being a Muslim or non-Muslim, in fact it depends upon whether there is life in it or not. The circulation of blood in an organ is the cause of life. No blood flows through rennet, therefore rennet is not a living thing. Therefore, it cannot ‘die’ and it is thus permissible to consume rennet.
[Muslim Food Guide, pg 25-30, http://www.halaal.co.uk ]

** A3**. It has been narrated in the major hadith collection s from Abdullah ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him and hi s father) that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) was brought cheese in the Battle of Tabuk. He asked for a knife then recited ‘bismillah’ and cut the cheese.’ (Abu Dawud)

Cheese made with animal rennet other than a pig source is halal. The fuqaha explain, however, that it is better to avoid whenever reasonably possible when its source is unknown because of the difference of opinion between the Sunni schools of fiqh regarding its permissibility and the doubt therein.

And Allah alone gives success.

Ilyas Patel,
Abu Zahra Institute
Keighley , UK .

also a comment by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani:

http://www.seekersdigest.org/imagined-indications-of-blog-entries-innovative-as-in-bida-not-good-reasoning.html

Peace cricketplay

Thank you for the clarification. I take back the definition of it being haram, however, I have a few questions which I believe I am qualified to pose due to my being from a chemical bioprocess engineering background.

I understand that you posted a link from another forum a discussion posted as a result of other people in a dialogue.

The reply that has been structured by Shaykh Ilyas is a confusing one for me:

The three opinions that are listed are not coherent in context.

First opinion: The first opinion is not really a deveoped analytical opinion. It is based on the assumption that rennet is haram and using haram to make cheese is haram. I can say that this is not a constructive opinion, because it has not been asertained why rennet may or may not be haram.

Second opinion: This is not really a whole opinion it is only part of it. It is saying , I think, that the rennet is haram, but since it is not part of the product, the product itself is halal. This is quite questionable as never in a bioprocess does complete separation of rennet occur from the product, there is always a residual amount left over. So if rennet is indeed haram, then the residue should therefore make the cheese haram.

Also, how does this apply to curdling process used in chocolates? Is it the same thing?

Third opinion: There are more questions to ask about the cheese that the prophet Muhammad (SAW) ate, i.e. not only was the rennet made from animals, but also whether rennet was used in the first place. Things like melons also secrete agents that coagulate and curdle proteins and some agents can exist in the air also, i.e. natural curdling can take place just as natural fermentation can take place. Other than this the most important question to me would be if animal products were used in the cheese that the prophet Muhammad (SAW) ate was this animal slaughtered in the halal way or not, because getting to it’s stomach would mean that it would need to be slaughtered.

Experiment! You can all make your own cheese, cottage cheese to be precise, just by simply warming up some milk and squirting in a dash of lemon juice. Vegetarian rennet is called Mucor miehei and can be brought in most big supermarkets.

The hanafi school opinion is not the opinion of Imam Abu Hanifah I just want to make that clear. There have been studies and they still continue today. However, we are hopefully not talking just about the opinion of one school from one establsihment in the UK.

The idea that rennet is an enzyme and is not part of the blood circulatory process, because of something having life in it and it does not have blood therefore it cannot have life in it is not a substantial analysis either. Saliva for example can be easily extracted without harming an animal, but the life of the animal as a whole is what the life pertains to, muscles do not have life in themselves either you see, it is the entire animal that has life in it. Due to the fact that we must get to the stomach by killing the animal this to me makes things very different from extracting enzymes from saliva.

However, I want to retract the initial statement of mars being haram as there are clearly more opinions, the answer given however, is not presenting the full argument and I believe the people here have a right to see it from the perspective of a Muslim who understands the intrinsic bioprocesses angle.