This just in: It’s OK for Muslims to drink alcohol and eat pork. The caveat: only in small quantities. Until recently, many Muslims and Islamic scholars had taken a “zero tolerance” approach to the issue, which made life difficult for many Muslims, who found that even ordinary soft drinks would have a minute, yet detectible amount of alcohol and/or gelatin (which can be derived from pigs) in it. But a recent ruling by the UK Muslim Law Council, which is Britain’s highest authority on what is halal and what isn’t, said that there are amounts that are too small to matter. “I see no harm in consuming Ribena and Lucozade (popular British juice and energy drinks),” wrote Council chair Zaki Badawi, “which contain traces of ethyl alcohol and animal ingredients that do not bear their original qualities and do not change the taste, colour or smell of the product.” Badawi cited the documented practice of the Prophet Muhammad of soaking raisins and dates in water and drinking the result after three days. (No word yet on whether the ruling exonerates non-alcoholic beer and its trace amounts of alcohol.) More significantly, however, is the part of the ruling which allows drinks containing animal gelatin - which has been a major bugaboo for Muslims and has resulted in a cottage industry of halal Jell-O knockoffs and marshmallows. “Because even if [the gelatin] is made from haram meat it has undergone fundamental process of transformation through certain chemical changes that is called ‘istihalah’ in Islamic law,” wrote Dr. Nazih Hammad, a member of the Islamic Fiqh Academy and Fiqh Council of North America. So on your next Muslim camping trip, feel free to toast Smores by an open fire with a cold O’Douls in your other hand.
Re: Low Alcohol Drinks OK'ed for Muslims in Britain
is it also ok to induldge in slight adultery????
just a teeny weeny bit????
or to steal small things....
just a penny????
according to a narration, Hazrat Ali (ra) is quoted to have said that if a drop of alcohol fell into a well, and the well water was used to irrigate a land, and a cow grazed upon the crop that geew therefrom, i wud not eat the meat of that cow....
its not exaggeration, but just to prove how even the minute quantities r not allowable....
Re: Low Alcohol Drinks OK'ed for Muslims in Britain
^^ Maybe even writing alcohol may be na-jaiz. Please refrain from typing alcohol. You haver polluted the whole GS man. Now I gotta go do the wudu and wipe my keyboard with non-alcoholic cleaner.
Re: Low Alcohol Drinks OK'ed for Muslims in Britain
I think..Pepsi and Coke do not contain Alcohol..not even in minute quantity..Maddy..do you have any reference?
some flavours of Ribena and Lucozade on the other hand do contain minute quantity of alcohol. My friend wrote to the company..and i'll see if i can find their reply and post in here..
Re: Low Alcohol Drinks OK’ed for Muslims in Britain
In the case of Coca-Cola, according to the scholar above, alcohol is required to extract some of the flavourings from their natural sources, and some may be left over in the final canned product.
In the case of Pepsi, it’s because some of the flavourings are not soluble in water, so a small smount of alcohol is present to dissolve it.
Re: Low Alcohol Drinks OK'ed for Muslims in Britain
Is that the same alcohol that is used in Liquor? If not then it should not be haraam. Mere the use of word alcohol doesn't make something Halaal or Haraam.
Re: Low Alcohol Drinks OK’ed for Muslims in Britain
Ethanol is the alcohol found in liquor.
But, as the answer from the scholar that I linked earlier states, Islam forbids not a particular chemical, but instead anything that intoxicates. Since Pepsi or Coke is not known to have ever intoxicated anyone, regardless fo quantity drunk, he rules that they cannot be considered to be haraam.