HALAL AND HARAM

(lawful and unlawful things)

The Prophet said : It is compulsory on every Muslim to seek lawful earnings. He termed this compulsory subject as a thing of wisdom for a wise man out of other compulsory things. Lawful things are clear and unlawful things are also clear. Between these two, there are doubtful things which are not clear and difficult to know. All things are limited within these three things. This will be discussed in seven sections.

SECTION I

MERITS OF LAWFUL EARNINGS AND CONDEMNATION OF UNLAWFUL

QURAN : God says : Eat of the good things and do good deeds- 2:168. God ordered for eating good things before doing good deeds. The object of this order is eating of lawful things. God says : Don't eat properties of one another unjustly-2:188. God says : 0 believers, fear God and give up what remains of interest if you are believes-2.278. God says : If you do not do it, then be prepared to fight with God and His Prophet-2:289. Then He says : If you repent, then for you is the capital. Then He said: Those who turn away from that are the inmates of Hell. They will abide therein. At first, eating of interest, then call for fight with God and His Apostle and last of all residing in Hell have been mentioned. There are innumberable verses regarding lawful and unlawful things.

Hadis : The Prophet said : It is compulsory on every Muslim to seek lawful earnings. The Prophet said : He who makes efforts to maintain his family out of lawful earnings is like a fighter in the way of God and he who seeks lawful earnings after restraining himself will get the rank of a martyr. The Prophet said : If a man eats lawful food for forty days, God illumines his heart and lets flow wisdom from his heart through his tongue. In another narration: God grants him renunciation in the world. Once Hazrat Sa'ad said to the Prophet : Pray to God that He may accept my invocation. The Prophet said : Eat lawful food and for that your invocation will be accepted. The Prophet mentioned the worldly addicted men and said : There are many men who have got dishevelled hairs, 2:61dustladen dresses, are tired in journey, whose food is unlawful, whose dress in unlawful, and who have been maintained by unlawful food. If they raise their hands and say: '0 Lord' O Lord' how can their invocation be accepted ? The Prophet said : An angel residing in Boitul Muqaddas proclaims every night : Saraf and Adal will not be accepted from a person who eats unlawful food. Saraf means optional and sunnat actions and Adal means compulsory duties. In other words, compulsory duties and optional duties will not be accepted from him. The Prophet said If a man purchases a cloth with ten dirhams and if one dirham out of them is unlawful, his prayer will not be accepted till a portion of that cloth remains in his body. The Prophet said : The fire of Hell is fit for the flesh which has been grown by unlawful food. The Prophet said : If a man does not care wherefrom he earns his wealth, God will not care by which path he will enter Hell. He said : There are ten shares of worship, nine of which are in lawful earnings. The Prophet said : he who passes times upto evening in search of lawful earnings passes the night in a state of his sins being forgiven and rises at dawn when God remains pleased with him.

The Prophet said: If a man earns by sinful acts and gives it in charity or action of an kindness or spends it in the way of God. God will throw him into Hell after collecting everything. The Prophet said : The best of your religion is to keep away from unlawful things. He said : If a man meets God after refraining from unlawful things. God will give him reward of the entire Islam. In an earlier scripture, God said with regard to those who refrained from unlawful food : I feel ashamed to take their accounts. The Prophet said : One dirham of interest is more serious to God than thirty fornications. The Prophet said : Stomach is the fountain of body and the veins come out of it. When the stomach is sound, the veins come out with health, and when it is unsound, they come out with disease. Food in religion is like the foundation of a building. When the foundation is strong and firm, the building stands straight and it can be raised up, and if the foundation is weak and curved, the building inclines to a side. God says: Is not he who establishes God Fear and God's pleasure in the foundation of his religion better than he who lays foundation by the side of Hell fire ? The Prophet said : The wealth which a man earns from unlawful things will not be accepted from him even if it is given in charity. If he leaves it after 2:62his death, he will increase the fire of Hell therewith. Many traditions have been mentioned in this chapter on earnings and I don't wish to repeat them here.

Wise saying. It has been reported that one Hazrat Abu bakr drank a little milk given by his female slave and asked her about it. She said : I prophesied to a people who gave it to me for that. Then he thrust the fronts of his fingers into his throat and vomited in such a way that his life was in danger. Then he said : 0 God, I pray to Thee for forgiveness of what remains attached to my throat and to my'stool. In another narration, it is said that when the Prophet was informed of it, he said : Don't you know that Abu Bakr does not allow anything to his belly except lawful food ? In a similar way, Hazrat Omar drank the milk of a camel throat of Zakat through mistake. He thrust his fingers into his throat and vomitted it, Hazrat Ayesha said : You are heedless of the best divine service. That is to be safe from eating unlawful food. Hazrat Fuzail said : He who takes care of what thing he admits in his belly, God records him as Siddiq. So, 0 needy man, look with what thing you break fast. Sufiyan Saori said : He who spend in charity out of unlawful wealth is like the person who washes impure clothes with wine. Impure things cannot be purified except with water and there is no expiation of sins without lawful things. Hazrat Ihya-b-Muaz said : To perform religious duties is God's secret treasure, invocation is its key and lawful food is its teeth . Hazrat Ibn Abbas said ; The prayer of a man in whose belly there is unlawful food is not accepted by God.

Hazrat Sahal Tastari said : The truth of faith does not reach a man who does not possess four qualities-(a) Performance of compulsory duties along with sunnat, (b) carefulness in eating, (a) giving up the prohibited things openly and secretly and (d) observing those rules with patience upto death. He said : He who likes that the signs of a Siddiq should be opened up for him should not eat except lawful things and should not follow except the ways of the Prophet. It is said that the heart of a man who eats doubtful things for 40 days becomes enveloped with darkness. That is the meaning of the following verse : Never, rather rust has fallen upon their hearts on account, of what earned-83:14. The Abdul Mobarak said : To return a coin of doubt to its owner is better than charity of one lac dirhmas. Sahal Tastari said : The 2:63limbs of a man become disobedient who eats unlawful food willingly or unwillingly, knowingly or unknowingly. The limbs of man who eats lawful food become obedient to him and help him in doing good deeds. There is a well-known Hadis : There is account of lawful things in the world and punish for unlawful things. The narrator added to it: There is rebuke for a doubtful thing.

A certain religious man served food before an Abdal. Without eating it, the latter asked him about it and said : Who don't eat except lawful food for which our hearts remain firm, our conditions become lasting, the affairs of heaven are disclosed to us and we see the next world. If we eat only three days what you eat, knowledge of our sure faith will disappear, and fear and actual vision will go from our hearts. The man said to him : I fast throughout the year and recite the Quran 30 times every month. The Abdul said to him : The water which I drink at night and what you see are dearer to me than your reciting the Quran thirty times in three hundred rakats of prayer. The milk of deer was his drink. There is written in the Torah : If a man does not care wherefrom he eats food, God also will not care by which door of Hell He will throw him in Hell.

CLASSES OF HALAL AND HARAM

(1) Things which are naturally unlawful. (2) and earnings which are unlawful.

(1) The things which are naturally unlawful are wine, blood, meat of pigs, dead animals, etc. The things fit for eating in the world are of three kinds, (a) minerals, such as salt, (2) vegetables and (3) animals.

(a) First kind-Minerals. Minerals are of different kinds. What grows out of earth is not unlawful four eating except what causes harm. There are things which have got the effect of poison. They are unlawful as they are injurious things.

(b) Second kind-Vegetables. They are not unlawful for eating except those vegetable which remove intellect, take life and ruin health. The things which destroy intellect are wine and intoxicants. The things which destroy life are poisons. The things which ruin health are medicines used out of time.

2:64(c) Third kind-Animals. They are of two kind-(1) what is eatable (2) and what is not eatable. Birds, beasts and animals in land and water which are fit for eating. and which, if sacrificed according to the rules of Shariat, become lawful . What is not sacrificed according to the rules of Shariat and what is dead are unlawful, Out of dead animals, two kinds are lawful-fish and locusts. The following animals are lawful according to this rule-worms in food-stuffs and fruits. etc. What is not liking to a particular person is Makruh for eating. The Prophet said Immerge a fly if it falls in food.' If an ant falls in food, it does not become impure. If a portion of flesh of a dead man falls in food, the whole food becomes unlawful. It is not on account of impurity, as man does not become impure after death, but it is out of horror. Animal, if sacrificed according to Shariat, becomes lawful except its blood and what is attached' to its impurities. Regarding vegetables, what produces intoxication in unlawful and what removes intellect is unlawful . One drop of an impure thing renders food unlawful.

(2) Second kind-unlawful things by earnings: There are two kind of earning- what is taken willingly or unwillingly and what comes to the owner spontaneously. What is taken willingly or unwillingly are of two kinds. (a) One kind is what is taken without the knowledge of the owner, such as minerals underneath the ground. Another kind is what is taken from the owner himself. The latter is of two kinds. (1) What is taken by force from him, (2) and what is taken with his permission. What is taken by force is again of two kind-(a) what is taken from the maintenance and care of the owner, such as quadrupeds, (b) what is taken from him by virtue of power of the ruling authorities, such as Zakat and other economic liabilities. What is taken with the permission of the owner is of two kinds--(a) What is taken from him in exchange, such as buy and sale, dower, wages, and what is not taken in exchange, such a gift, waist. Thus the things of earnings are of six kinds.

(1) To become owner of the things of which there is no owner, such as minerals, to make barren land fertile, to gather fuels and woods from jungles, to take water from river, to take grass, etc. To take these things are lawful provided there is no owner of these things.

2:65(2) What is taken by force and what is not prohibited are the properties gained after battle and without actual battle. They are lawful for all Muslims when one-fifth is taken out from the war booties and divided justly among those who are entitled to them. It is unlawful to take booty from those unbelievers with whom there is treaty.

(3) What can lawfully be taken by force inspite of prohibition of the owner, such as Zakat . It can only be taken by the ruling authorities. (4) What is taken in exchange of things with the consent of the owner is lawful, such as buy and sale transactions. (5) What is taken simply with permission without exchange of things, such as gifts, will, etc. is lawful. (6) What comes spontaneously in possessions, such as properties by inheritance after deduction of necessary expense-sueh as funeral expenses, death instructions by will or otherwise, expenses of expiations of religious duties, expenses of pilgrimage, etc. They are lawful.

DIFFERENT STAGES OF HALAL AND HARAM

Know, 0 dear readers, that every thing unlawful is bad, but there are different stages of illegality of things of which one is worse than another. All lawful things are good and there are different stages of legality therein and one thing is better than another. There are four stages of legality of things.

(1) First stage is lowest and it is forbearance of just and ordinary Muslims. It is to save oneself from the unlawful things prescribed by Shariat. This is the lowest stage of piety.

(2) Second stage is the forbearance of the pious. They refrain from lawful things bounding on illegality. A faqih will give its decision as lawful as it is a subject of doubt but the pious men keep away even from these doubtful things.

(3) Third stage. This is the stage of forbearance of God. fearing men. God-fearing men keep aloof from even such things as are lawful and free from doubt. If these are always practised, these may turn into Halal and as a result they have chance of falling into doubtful things. For this, God-fearing men keep aloof even from things free from doubt. The Prophet said : A man cannot reach the stage of God-fearing men till he gives up things free from doubt for fear of falling into things of doubt.

2:66(4) Fourth stage: In this stage, these God-fearing men give up even lawful things free from doubt even if there is no fear of failling into doubtful things, because they fear that those things may not be for God. They are called Siddiq.

EXAMPLES OF THE ABOVE FOUR-STATES

(1) No example is necessary in the case of the first stage, as the unlawful things are clear and a religious man must keep himself distant from these unlawful things.

(2) In the second stage, there is the forbearance of the pious from every doubtful things bordering on illegality. It is not compulsory to give them up, but it is commendable. The Prophet said: Give up what raises doubt in your mind and take what does not raise doubt in you. The Prophet said : Eat the games of hunting on which there are marks of shooting and which die in presence. Don't eat what goes beyond sight being wounded and then it is presented dead in front.' Though it is not unlawful, it is the forbearance of the pious men. It is an order of the Prophet-Give up what raises doubt in your mind.

(3) In the Third stage, it is the forbearance of the God-fearing people. This Hadis bears witness :A man cannot reach the stage of a God-fearing man till he gives up things free from doubt for fear of things of doubt. Hazrat Omar said : We have given up nine portions of lawful things out of ten portions for fear of falling into unlawful things. Hazrat Abu Darda'a said God-fear gains perfection at the time when a servant fears a very small thing. Even when he sees a lawful thing, he gives it up for fear of falling into unlawful things. Some examples are given below:

(1) A certain religious man took loan of one hundred dirhams. When he brought the dirhams for payment, the creditor took only 99 dirhams. Ali-Ma'bad said : I took a house on rent. I wrote a letter thought that I should take a little earth from its wall and soak the ink of the letter and I did accordingly. When I slept, I dreamt that a certain man was saying : 0 Ali-Ma'bad, you will know tomorrow on the Resurrection Day that the owner of the house will demand the little earth you used. By this act, he fell from the rank of God-fear.

2:67(2) During the Caliphate of Hazrat Omar, the umsk of Bahrain gained as result of battle reached him. He wife began to measure it when Hazrat Omar said: I don't want that you should place your hands on it and say afterwards that something of it remained in your hands on account of touch. This is the property of the Muslims in general and you can't get more than what you are entitled to from the property of the general Muslims.

(3) Once musk was measured before Caliph Abdul Aziz. He kept his nose shut up lest its smell entered his nose. He said What benefit has it got except its scent ? This benefit only is sought from it.

(4) Once the Prophet's grandson Hasan put into his mouth one dried-grape out of the grapes of Zakat. The Prophet said Throw it off, Throw it off.

(5) Once a man went to see his friend at night. Soon after his death, he put out the light and said : The right of inheritance has occurred in the oil.

(6) Hazrat Omar gave to his wife some musk for sale. She sold it to another seller. At the time of sale, she began to break one piece by her teeth for which something was attached to her fingers. Hazrat Omar smelt scent from her and said: You have taken the scent of the Muslim in general. This he did to become a truly God-fearing man though it is not unlawful.

(7) Imam Ahmad-b-Hambal said : To smell sent of a tyrant ruler destroys the piety of a man.

(8) When Hazrat Omar became Caliph, he had only one wife whom he loved very much. He, however, divorced her for fear the she might intercede to him for an unlawful thing and perchance he might accept her intercession. For this reason, things free from doubt were even given up for fear of falling into doubtful things. Being habituated to many lawful things, one is led to unlawful things, such as too much eating, excessive use of scent, etc. If too much food is eaten, sexual passion rises high and it leads to unlawful cohabitation. Similarly to look at the beautiful buildings and the pomp and grandeurs of the rich may tempt one to follow them.

(9) There is no benefit to white-wash the walls of a building. Imam Ahmad held it as Makuh or a abominable. When the 2:68Prophet once was asked about painting in the mosque. He said: There is no Arish like the Arish of Moses. Arish is a pearl-like antimony with which a-thing is painted. The Prophet did not hold it lawful.

(10) The ancient sages said : The life religion of a man whose cloth is thin is also thin.