Dogma of Halal and Haram
15 Oct, 2008
If
you walk at random in any Muslim district in Europe, you will
certainly find somewhere, at least in one corner, an Islamic
butchery with the word ”halal” written on its shop-window. For the
products of meat, the word “halal” is a badge of Islamic quality.
- Muslims believe that since blood is not ritually a pure substance, slaughter is necessary to inhibit the thorough draining of all of the animal's blood.
Furthermore, the verse ”Bismillah al Rahman Al Rahim,” in the
name of Allah the Beneficent the Merciful, is necessary to render
the meat halal or lawful to eat.
The word halal refers, here, to meat killed and prepared in line with Islamic dietary laws. Jewish and Islamic religions demand that slaughter is carried out with a cut to the neck or throat, rather than the more widespread method of stunning with a bolt into the head before slaughter.
Generally, halal means anything permissible under Islamic law, in contrast to haram, that which is forbidden. This includes behaviour, speech, dress, conduct. The term halal is also used to judge the right of sexuality after marriage, even temporarily marriage which is a Shiite tradition called “Sigheh” which is believed by some as a legalized prostitution. To rape his own female slave or even a non Muslim prisoner of war is halal—in this light, many political female prisoners of the Islamic Republic of Iran who were considered “non-Muslims”, were ”legally” raped by their Islamist torturers before being executed.
In an extended sense, halal means fairness of business dealings or other types of transaction or activity. Therefore, it represents values that are held in high regard by Muslims. It contains standards for social norms, morals, foods and other services that meet Islamic regulations. Needless to mention, in Islamic countries, these are the only available standards for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Slaughter is an old tradition of Jewish and Islamic clan society. As a matter of best practice, the killed animal is supposed to be distributed among the members of the clan right after being slaughtered so that each family can often have fresh meat to eat. Like many other traditions, this one was also accepted as a principle in Islam.
Slaughter reminds us of an old instinct of pre-historic hominoid, to which a prey must be killed by the hunter—the instinct can be seen by a great number of beasts of prey. In another perspective, we see a characteristic disposition of this instinct beyond Islamic laws (Sharia), where beheading and amputation of the accused resemble routine rituals, where blood of the accused is figuratively considered as halal and the executer does a halal job.
Halal blood can be also a reason for honour killing in the Islamic societies. Honour killing is committed by male family members against female family members, who are perceived to have brought dishonor upon the family. A female can be targeted by her family for a variety of reasons, including: refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, having sex outside marriage, or even being the victim of a sexual assault.
Halal has nothing to do with prophylactic, hygienic, precautions or medical meaning. To better understand halal, we must see what its opposite term “haram” means. Haram has roots in revulsion which is an old instinct of evolution. Revulsion is a sense of loathing without any logical reason or clear explanation. As an instinct, it was a necessary reaction of early human beings when exposed to an unknown food, unknown object, or an unconventional situation.
Object of revulsion is culturally conditioned. It means whatever is repulsive for the members of a given society do not necessarily provoke the same revulsion for others. In a historical sense, the terms like halal, haram, and negis are nothing but the instinctive reflections, which were integrated into Islam.
In many cases, Islamic commandments and rituals are not only the traditional reflections of desert dwellers of pre-Islamic Arabia, but also based on the Prophet Muhammad’s habits, his sexual preferences, his favorite things, and his dietary habits.
Since sexuality is taboo in Islam, sexual organs, vaginal secretion and sperm are considered as “negis” (loathing and impure). Therefore, they should not be touched—if unintentionally touched, ceremonial washing and rituals must be done. Blood and any slimy substance secreted by a mucous membrane of the body have more or less a similar sense of negis. Needless to mention, all these secreted or mucous substances, regardless of their odour and colour, belong to normal function of our body.
Not only non Muslims, ethnic groups, slaves and women, but even animals in Islam are not freed from this discrimination. Dogs and pigs are the most negis animals. Term of “negis” characterizes their absolute and unchangeable impurity. Pork meat is absolutely haram and dog as a “negis” animal can never be proper pet in a Muslim house. Touching a dog, especially a dog’s saliva, requires ritually hygienic procedure to get the hand clean—if a dog eats from a dish, the dish must be washed 7 times, the first time with sand. Dog, despite all its uses in many ways, is discriminated as a negis creature.
While Marriage of Muslim men with women of the Book (Muslims, Christians and Jews), based on Islamic rituals, can be permitted, all other varieties of marriage between Muslim women and non Muslim men are considered haram. As a patriarchal religion, Islam granted a little concession only to Muslim men. Muslim women are not allowed to marry men outside of Islam (unless they convert to Islam). No marriage is permitted between Muslims and “Mushriks” (atheists, polytheists, other belief systems which are considered by Muslims negis). The Koran says, “A believing slave woman is better than a mushrik woman!”
As mentioned, terms like halal, haram, and negis are not more than rituals of particular conditions and environment. These terms have no logic and scientific credentials at all. They are only the legacy of per-Islamic values of the Arabian clan, society which still impose themselves on today’s society.
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Born in Iran, Jahanshah Rashidian studied psychology in France and is currently a German national. He is a freelancer and writes on democracy, secularism, and human rights issues in several languages. He maintains a blog at Jahanshah Rashidian.
Name: halal and haram irrationalities
Date: Wednesday October 15, 2008
Time: 08:59:16 -0700
Comment
halal and haram irrationalities and too long dos and donts claimed by mad mohammad with his conscience. these absurdies are believed by muslims as words of god. Unfortunately the moralities are hijacked by all religions. This is the greatest of human tragedy according to great science fiction writer Sir Arther clark.
Name: Duh_swami
Date: Wednesday October 15, 2008
Time: 17:36:07 -0700
Comment
There are other religions that drain the meat of blood, because the Bible says abstain from blood. But on a practical level it is impossible to drain all the blood from an animal. Much of it is captured in capillaries as soon as the heart stops. If one wants to be certain, and not gamble with animal blood ingestion, become a vegetarian and you won't have to worry about it...
Name: ha ha ha .....
Date: Wednesday October 15, 2008
Time: 19:04:15 -0700
Comment
For the dogs, I suspect that Mohammad was several times bitten by dogs in his childhood, and to avoid being bitten by a dog when he visited someone's house, he decalared that dogs are haram. For the pigs, I suspect he never tasted this meat named pork, only heard from other people in his trade journey. Because he couldnot taste it, he declared the pork as haram. "The I don't get it, you don't get it either attitude". Other animals declared as haram, I believe he plagiarized it from the Pentateuch, Books of Moses, Leviticus. (Remember that Khadijah's brother was a Christian). When I was young, I often had bread with pork inside it. When offered to a moslem friend, not knowing it is pork, they said it is very tasty and delicious, ha ha ha .....
Name: Haram and Halal
Date: Wednesday October 15, 2008
Time: 23:59:40 -0700
Comment
Only some 50 years ago it was even determined haram to ride a bicycle in Arabia, because it was considered to be the donkey of satan! A written permission was needed for the use of a bike, with many limitations. Any idolatry and superstition is also haram, however, except anything islamic, which is determined to be the true faith. However, how about the holy stone and the quran, which both a worshipped even worse than an idol? For instance, it is haram to worhsip in front of an orthox icon of christ or an image of buddha, though the worshippers are not at all worshipping the idols or icons, but the persons they are symbolizing. In contrast, the holy stone from the Kaaba is being worshipped by itself, as is the quran. Though it consists of nothing but ink and paper, it is strictly forbidden to do any harm to a quran, or to throw it away. This is what I call idolatry!
Name: kmgy
Date: Thursday October 16, 2008
Time: 02:50:59 -0700
Comment
Islamic laws are barbaric.
Name: vbv
Date: Thursday October 16, 2008
Time: 02:51:08 -0700
Comment
Islam is a cult of a primitive bedouin tribes of Arabia. All that halal and haram are reflective of a primitive mindset which wants to be led with blinkers not only over their eyes but also their small brains stunting its growth. This halal and haram busines today has been carried to ridiculous lengths with the likes of Taliban in Afghanistan, the wahabists in Saudi Arabia,etc. For them music, art, drama, dance, sculpture, painting, literature, poetry ,TV, Movies, sports, athletics, infact everything that a modern civilised human savours is "HARAM"! Then what is "HALAL"? Killing for the flimsiest reasons like honorkilling, killing of Kaffirs for their wealth or women, indulging in piracy, brigandry, plundering, raping of "kaffir" women , enslaving nonmuslims, robbery , growing opium poppies ,drug-running, gun-running, killing innocent people by terrorising them ,suicide-bombing and the whole gamut of filthy immorality and crime is "HALAL"! What do you say to this? no religion worth calling its name ever condones or permits what is considered "HALAL" in islam. With all this they profess (especially the Peace TV and their votaries like Zakir Naik, Israar Ahmed ,or the joker Ahmed Deedat,etc) to have "all the solutions for 'Humanity'" and they have the gall to say that 'islam is a religion of peace'! Islam is a cult and not a religion, a disastrous cult, an evil cult, an immoral cult, and a destructive cult! Human values are practicallly nonexistent. It is just amafia code and their talk of "halal" and "haram" is ludicruous to say the least. The only religion which can claim to be a religion of Peace is Budhism which calls for peace and harmony and above all nonviolence amongst all living creatures , not just humans. Yet they are quiet about it, unlike this mad cult of islam!
Name: Sita Patel
Date: Thursday October 16, 2008
Time: 19:48:40 -0700
Comment
Islam is a religion of Peace. But when life against the will of God the creator, is chalanged All religions gives the Ok to bring the culprits to law. What about those who preach religion, are they law abiding? If a rapist is given a leaniant sentence, obviously the rapist will do that act again. I guess in our culture now it’s ok to rape ones Mother, Sister, Daughter or Someone else’s wife etc. Is this the culture we live in Jahanshah Rashidian? Do you always like to misquote the Koran?
Name: Kaniq Saloma
Date: Friday October 17, 2008
Time: 01:34:27 -0700
Comment
The first declaration made by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) concerning this matter was that not only is Khamr (wine or alcohol) prohibited but that the definition of Khamr extends to any substance that intoxicates, in whatever form or under whatever name it may appear. Thus, beer and similar drinks are haram. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was once asked about certain drinks made from honey, corn, or barley by the process of fermenting them until they became alcoholic. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) succinctly replied, "Every intoxicant is Khamr, and every Khamr is haram." Reported by Musslim.) And 'Umarr (may Allah be pleased with him) declared from the pulpit of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that "Khamr is that which befogs the mind." (Reported by Al-Bukari and Musslim.) Islam takes a stand in prohibiting intoxicants, regardless of whether the amount is little or much. If an individual is permitted to take but a single step along this road, other steps follow; he starts walking and then running, and does not stop at any stage. That is why the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Of that which intoxicates in a large amount, a small amount is haram." (Reported by Ahmed Abhu Dawwuud and At-Thirmidi.) And again, "If a bucketful intoxicates, a sip of it is haram."
Name: why wine which has health benefit is haram in islam????
Date: Friday October 17, 2008
Time: 04:39:50 -0700
Comment
i really dont understand...red wine is considered to be healthy and protect against cancer, heart disease etc...why this is considered haram in islam ? in jannat its ok to drink rivers of wine but here its not ? why ? why such absurdities.