Halal and Haram - An alternative juridical view
By Dr. Muhammad ‘Umar Bazmool
Muslims today are under the impression that food products, such as gelatine and emulsifiers (E471, E472, etc.), including other related aspects, are haram (forbidden in Islam) because the origin stems from an impermissible source. However, the following talk delivered by Sheikh Muhammad 'Umar Bazmool during his classes from “Ad-Durar al-Bahiyyah” of ash-Shawkanee in the summer of 1423 in Makkah (translated by Moosa Richardson and a fatwa given by Sheikh Nasirud-deen al-Albaani), provides an alternative view point that brings this religion back to what it was meant to be – made easy (yusr) and not difficult (‘usr).
Istihala is when something becomes pure. It was najis (impure), but it is now tahir (pure). A good example would be maitah (animal carcass): it is najis, but should it be burned and become ashes, or decompose and become earth, then it is tahir, it is no longer najis. This can happen with dung or faeces or whatever:
Whenever something changes from one property to another, then the ruling likewise changes.
For example: Let us say that someone uses the fat of a dead animal to make soap. That fat is najis; but the chemical change that it was put through renders it taahir.
Ibn Hazm put it concisely when he said: “Ruling upon an object is upon what it is named (what it is), if the name (of what it is) changes then so does the ruling.”
He also mentioned in his book of fiqh (jurisprudence), Al-Muhalla:
“If the quality of the substance of naturally impure objects changes the name which was given to it so that it is no longer applicable to it and it is given a new name which is given to a pure object, then it is no longer an impure thing. It becomes a new object, with a new rule.”
Meaning, if the natural composition of a substance changes to another substance of a different composition, so much so that you can no longer call the new substance by the name of what it was - ruling upon that substance changes too.
Proof 1:
The companions (radiAllahu ‘anhum) used to eat a cheese that came from the land of the non-Muslims. In that cheese was a part of the calf that was slaughtered by the non-Muslims in a way that was not in accordance with Islam. The companions knew this, but they also knew that the prohibition was upon the calf, i.e. what is directly from the calf, and what could be properly called part of the calf; the ruling is not upon that which you cannot identify as part of the calf nor is it called any longer such-and-such part of the calf. This is called istihala.
Proof 2:
Another proof from the Sunnah (Prophetic Tradition) was when the Prophet (peace be upon him) forbade making vinegar out of wine, but said that if you should come across vinegar that has been made from wine then it is halal. Why? The ruling is upon what the object is, and not what it was. Wine is haram, vinegar is not, and before the wine became an intoxicant, it was halal. Why? Because it was fruit before that.
Proof 3:
Allah says in the Qur’an:
“And surely there is a lesson for you in the cattle we give you to drink of what is in their bellies from between the faeces and blood, pure milk, wholesome to those who drink it.” (16:66)
Allah is putting forth an example for us of how something pure can come from something impure.
And we can also use as proof something that we’ve already gone over. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said that when the hide of maitah (carrion) is tanned, then it is tahir. He (peace be upon him) gave us a method to purify something which was first impure.
Let us examine things we are familiar with: mono and diglycerides, whey, gluten, emulsifiers, gelatine, and whatever else is on the international haram list. These by-products sometimes come from animals, pigs even, in which case the ruling on the initial substances is that they are haram. But the initial substances (e.g. fat, marrow, cartilage, etc.) are put through chemical change so that you no longer can even call it “pig fat” or “animal bone” or “skin” or “cartilage”, etc. because it is no longer that; thus, it is tahir, it is halal.
What is gelatine? As Oxford dictionary of science defines: “A colourless or pale yellow, water-soluble protein obtained by boiling collagen with water and evaporating the solution. It melts when water is added and dissolves in hot water to form a solution that sets to a gel on cooling.”
Is this a chemical change or is this not a chemical change? Is it protein any longer? No, it is not.
You are in disbelief so you ask: “But how can it be halal when it came from something haram?”
Because of the proofs mentioned above: the ruling is not based upon what it was, the ruling is based upon what it is. A Hanafi scholar, Ibn Abedin, gave the example: “The swine which drowns in a salt lake and decomposes and becomes salt itself, is now halal.”
And other Hanafi scholars go on to say: “Salt is different from meat and bones. If they become salt, they are salt.”
To take the salt example further: salt consists of sodium chloride (NaCl) when together they are the halal food known as salt, when separated they make up two poisonous substances which are then haram for consumption.
The ahnaf (Hanafis) also use as an example the human semen, saying that it is najis, then when it inseminates the egg and becomes a blood clot it is still najis, but when it becomes flesh it is no longer najis. And the ahnaf are not the only ones who take this position.
The examples are numerous and they extend beyond food.
We must be careful when we call things haram because it is a form of thulm (oppression). Scholars have said that it is worse that you make something halal to haram than making something haram to halal. This deen (way of life) Allah has made yusr (easy), let us not make it 'usr (hard). Wallahu 'alim (and Allah knows best).
(END OF TALK)
In relation to the above principles, we forward the complicated and precise process of gelatine production and its five-fold stages of purification.
GME - GELATINE MANUFACTURERS OF EUROPE
Gelatine is produced in highly technological industrial installations in a complex procedure involving several stages. The input material is the connective tissue of pigs, cattle, poultry or fish. The collagen protein is removed from the pig, calf or cattle skin as well as bones and is processed to form gelatine. Gelatine the final product is a pure source of protein.
1. Pretreatment
First of all, the fat and minerals are removed from the raw materials. Afterwards two different pre-treatment methods are used, depending on the raw material and on the final application of the gelatine.
Alkaline Procedure:
The connective tissue of cattle is highly interconnected and is therefore pre-treated with lime in a process lasting several weeks. This brings about a gentle change to the collagen structure. After this treatment, the collagen is soluble in warm water and can thus be separated from the rest of the raw material.
Acid Procedure:
The collagen connective tissue from pigskin is not so heavily interconnected. Here, a one-day acid treatment with subsequent neutralisation and the intensive rinsing out of the salts is sufficient to extract the collagen.
2. Extraction
The pre-treated raw materials are now treated with hot drinking water and extracted in several stages. The temperature of the hot water is a parameter for the jelly strength: the lower the temperature of the water, the higher the jelly strength (Bloom value) of the extracted gelatine.
3. Cleaning
The extracted solutions are freed of traces of fat and fine fibres in high-performance separators. Even the finest impurities are removed by filtration, in a similar way to the beverages industry. In a last purification stage the gelatine is freed of calcium, sodium, residual acid and other salts.
4. Thickening
The gelatine solution is now concentrated in vacuum evaporators and thickened to form a honey-like solution.
5. Drying
The highly concentrated gelatine solutions are sterilised, cooled, set and dried under strict hygienic conditions. In this process, “gel noodles” are formed that are ground into grains.
The quality and purity of the gelatine is ensured by detailed quality control. All of these steps are indispensable for gelatine manufacture and have been used for decades to manufacture high-quality gelatine.
So is Gelatine Halal or Haram?