Is food of the People of the Book lawful for Muslims?

[Zainab_M]

 




The other day Br. Shabir Ally, President of Islamic Information Centre, Toronto, mentioned in one of his Saturday evening lectures of "Let the Quran Speak" that food eaten by Christians / Jews are lawful (Halal) for Muslims based on the following Verse, though he admitted that Muslims are divided over this issue.

"This day are (all) good things made lawful for you. The food of those who have received the Scripture is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them."  (5:5)  Surah Al-Maidah

Personally, I see no reason why we should be divided over something as clear and plain as this.  One only needs to be a little  perceptive.  We know very well that the originals of the Torah and Gospel were from Allah, just like the Noble Quran.  Thus, as Allah says, the Quran is a confirmation of the former Scriptures.  The messages of the former Scriptures needed to be confirmed and corrected because they had been changed by human hands over the passage of time.  By the 7th century the Old and New Testaments were altered, but not entirely.  There were still commonalities with the Quran.  However, this process of changing and editing the Old and New Testaments has been an endless process that continues to date.  As a result, presently, the Hebrew and Christian Bibles are an entire set of human narrations having many versions and with numerous flaws and contradictions that must be put at par with the man-written Hadith, NOT the Divine original Quran. 

When the Almighty Allah states in the Quran that the food of the People of the Book is lawful for us, it is in accordance with the Old and New Testaments (as they were) in the 7th century.  But, as I said above, the contents of these two former Scriptures at present are very different from what they were back in the 7th century, in that, they've been completely changed to suit the times.  Among Christians, there's no such thing as Halal or Kohsher in eatables.  They eat just about everything with no concept of mentioning the name of God before slaughtering an animal.  At best, just a few traditional families might recite the "Lord's prayer" at the supper table before beginning to eat.  On the contrary, the Noble Quran has clearly highlighted what we must avoid as food.  The Quran has commanded us not to consume pork and not to eat the meat of an animal on which the name of Allah has not been mentioned at the time of slaughter nor eat the meat of an animal on which the name of some other deity has been mentioned.

Thus, I do not understand how Br. Shabir Ally thought it proper to use Verse 5:5 at face value without reflecting on other Quranic instructions with a simple analysis of history. 

In other words, according to the Western concepts at present, every item of food of the People of the Book is definitely NOT lawful for us.  We have to pick and choose as per the information in the Quran, though it's important to be rational without going to the other extreme as many do .. for if you read some of the Haram food lists created by certain of our jurists, countless Halal items have been declared Haram by their strange fatwas and illogical judgement.  This too is improper as we are not entitled to disallow something for which Allah has given us no warrant.

"And do not say about what your tongues assert of untruth, "This is lawful and this is unlawful," to invent falsehood about Allah. Indeed, those who invent falsehood about Allah will not succeed."  16:116  An-Nahl.

[Heba E. Husseyn]

Thanks for elaborating on this very important issue, Sis Zainab.  Even I don't understand how Mr. Shabir Ally could say that nowadays the food of the People of the Book is Halal for Muslims.  He's obviously trying to twist Verse 5:5 into a convenient interpretation.  Only a couple of weeks ago he held a lecture at his centre, discouraging wrong or hardline interpretations of the Quran.  And now he himself gives a wrong interpretation.