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Halal Foods in Quran

Every religion has certain criteria on what kinds of food its followers can eat and what others they should avoid.

According to Rahyafte (the missionaries and converts website):They draw limitations on the foods that can be eaten due to health considerations or for other reasons.

The verses of the Quran have determined what foods are Halal (Muslims are allowed to eat) or Haram (Muslims are not allowed to eat). Of course, there are no baseless restrictions.

What the Quran says about Haram and Halal has very interesting aspects. For example, God has made some foods Haram but those very foods can be eaten under certain circumstances.

According to Nemouneh Quran Exegesis, there are to provisos for these exceptions: First, they can only be eaten in emergency situations and not for joy and second, it should not go beyond necessity.

Verses 173 of Surah Al-Baqarah says: “He has forbidden you the dead, blood, and the flesh of swine, also that which is invoked to other than Allah. But whoever is constrained (to eat) any of these, not intending to sin or transgress, incurs no guilt. Allah is Forgiving and the Most Merciful.”

It may be thought that the main purpose of the verse is forbidding the consumption of some foods but it would be interesting to know that at the time of revelation, this verse considered it Halal to eat many of the foods that had been forbidden at the time of Jahilliya (era before Muhammad (PBUH) was appointed Prophet of God).

Another point is that the Rule of Iztirar (necessity, emergency) is not about foods only. When there is Iztirar, any rule may be affected. For example, when someone is sick, he can say prayers while sleeping, if the doctor orders it.

What God forbids is not just for health and medical issues as it sometimes is related to ideological, educational and intellectual issues. For example, eating the meat of animals that are slaughtered without the mention of the name of God is forbidden in order to disavow Shirk (polytheism).

In his Noor Exegesis of the Quran, Hojat-ol-Islam Mohsen Qaraati highlights the following messages in this verse:

1- Islam lays great emphasis on the issue of eating and nutrition and warns about harmful and Haram foods.

2- It is only God that can forbid or allow things not others.

3- Mentioning the name of God when slaughtering animals is necessary so that nothing we do is out of the realm of monotheism and that we can fight with manifestations of Shirk and idolatry.

4- An emergency situation changes a rule only if it has been imposed on us.

5- Islam is a comprehensive religion that has no dead ends and has solutions for every situation. Any obligation can be removed in emergency situations.

6- Legislators should consider the possibility of special conditions when passing laws.

7- One should not exploit the rules about emergency situations: “without the intention of transgression or repeating transgression”.

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