Tuesday 4 November 2008

Difference between Halal, pork-free & vegetarian restaurants

My bro just reminded me that there are big differences between the 3 categories of restaurants which I use in my postings. I do agree with him but I guess I just assumed my visitors will be thorough enough in finding out more information before consuming food at any restaurants of their choice.

Anyway, I guess I better simplify the differences because some of my visitors might not even know what constitute as halal - I stumbled onto 1 forum where a muslim member defined halal as 'clean', as long long as the restaurant is clean, it is halal to her/him regardless whether pork is served or not. (the forum requires input from members on what halal means to them n they are required to put a note whether they are muslim or not). I'm not judging her/him but halal term is defined in Quran n Hadith - not a term that we can define as we please.

HALAL:

This site describe what is halal quite comprehensively http://www.crescentsofbrisbane.org/the_good_caterers_guide.htm read on to know more.

In Malaysia halal restaurant means the restaurant is issued with 'halal' certificate by a religious body (JAKIM) n as far as malaysian muslims are concern, even if the restaurant has no halal certificate but the operator is muslim and they don't serve alcohol, the restaurant is considered halal.

PORK-FREE:

Well.. obviously the restaurant does not serve pork :-) however in multi racial country like Malaysia, the operator wishes to cater to the needs of non muslims too by serving alcohol on their premise; because of that JAKIM will not issue halal certificate to a restaurant that operates in this manner, even though halal meat is served (the operator procures meat for his restaurant from halal certified supplier).

The other category of pork-free restaurant is a premise that serves halal food (procures meat from halal certified supplier) but operated by non-muslims and the operator does not bother to apply for halal certificate from JAKIM.

Of course some pork-free restaurants do not use halal meat (slaughtered according to muslim law), but some muslims do eat at these places, but they will only consume meat-free and alcohol-free food - dishes like seafood, eggs etc.

VEGETARIAN:

All plant base food is halal (except those with intoxicating properties - marijuana etc or poisonous plants), however, not all vegetarian dishes are halal because some dishes use alcohol as flavour, additives etc; therefore should a muslim decides to eat at a vegetarian restaurant, do enquire on what ingredients are used for the dishes before ordering dinner :-)

P/S
Additional notes - just in case some visitors misunderstood that all animals' products are halal except pork as long as the animals are slaughtered n prepared according to Islamic law. Yeah - keyword MISUNDERSTOOD. Not all animals are halal even though they are slaughtered n prepared the Islamic way. Please refer to these sites for HALAL (lawful / permitted) n HARAM (forbidden) food:

1) http://www.afic.com.au/Halal.htm

2) http://www.malaysiahalalfoods.com/haram.html

3) http://www.parsquran.com/eng/subject/halal.htm

4) http://www.islamforlife.co.uk/haram%20list.htm

5) http://www.soundvision.com/Info/halalhealthy/q.halal.asp

6) http://darulislam.info/Sections-article107-p1.html

7) http://10gramms.com/2008/04/16/halal-and-haram-food-in-quran-and-hadith/

8) http://special.worldofislam.info/Food/halal_haram.html

9) http://www.ummah.net/Al_adaab/fiqh/haram_meat.html

10) http://forums.islamicawakening.com/showthread.php?t=4935

11) http://en.allexperts.com/q/Islam-947/food-3.htm

12) http://www.soundvision.com/info/halalhealthy/ingridient.asp

13) http://hamzajennings.com/2008/08/01/e120-haram-food-colouring/

14) http://www.turntoislam.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-25793.html

15) http://www.athalal.co.uk/halal.php

16) http://www.halaldiets.com/articlesview.aspx?id=12

17) http://mahfuzahmed.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/is-your-meat-halal/

18) http://www.muslimtents.com/aminahsworld/Is_kosher_halal.html

19) http://halal-hub.org/guideline.php

20) http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/5/11/nation/17694213&sec=nation

3 comments:

Croesus said...

I stumbled onto this comment by a MUSLIM n WOW! According to him, just recite bismillah n u r good 2 go. Anyway, I thot I just share his thought with you guys. "if u are muslim and want to eat halal for religious reasons, you could always eat seafood. I lived in Seoul(south korea) for a while and its almost impossible to find cheap halal food, almost every muslim who sells you halal food does it for the money and tricks u for it. so my advice is just say ''bismillah'' and eat anything(except pork of course) and always remember that '' al-din yusr'' which is translated to '' religion is simple'' its a blessing and not a bother. ramadan kareem everyone

by fahad http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+37962

P/s for those needing to find out more on halal/haram pls refer to sites given in the above posting.

Unknown said...

i just wanted to say something after what creosus said that this is not the way with the rule al din yusr is used.
you cannot just ignore the rules and say bismillah and eat anything.
it has to be halal the quranic verse is very specific about it in the sura ma'ida also other instructions by our prophet if it was the case of only saying bismillah then there would be no need for these rules.
your meat must be provided by someone who had butchered it in a proper way

it's a bit of trouble but it's not that hard wherever you're going you can find a mosque and an islamic society and they can help you.
also you can eat meat from both christians and jews so i don't think it would be that hard to find places for one of these three religions.
and muslims please stop being lazy and have a little bit of devotion to your religion

MAWAR PUTIH said...

Assalamualaikum Fatima..
I agree with your statement..

Thank you.
Aisyah