Eating
in
Scotland

You know,

Jews and Christians,

the people that the Qur'an calls 'People of the Book',

believe in One God just like Muslims.

And if they all agree that there is only One God,

then obviously the followers of all three religions

worship the same God as each other,

although they may have different ways of showing it

and use different names for God in their different languages.

But some Muslims thought that in matters concerning food the People of the Book were to be treated in the same way as those who worshipped idols.

So Allah sent down words in the Qur'an

which made clear that Muslims can not only eat with the People of the Book,

but can even get married to them.

Now Muslim lawyers have agreed that this permission

to eat 'the food of those who were given the scripture before you'

includes their meats as well as other foods.

All of these are Halal for Muslims

except what is Haram in itself, like carrion, pork and blood.

These are Haram whether they come from Christian, Jew or Muslim.

It is not necessary for Muslims to ask about what they haven't seen,

such as how the animal was killed

and whether the name of Allah was mentioned at the time.

If the animal is killed by an ignorant or sinful Muslim,

or by someone from amongst the People of the Book,

eating it is considered Halal.

Muslim scholars say that people's actions are to be treated as acceptable

and correct unless they are proved otherwise.

In Scotland, Muslims who want to be strict about their food

need to carefully read any list of ingredients.

Pork products can be found in bread and biscuits, cakes and candy.

and sometimes 'animal fat' will be found in foods,

or pork can be added to turkey to give 'added flavour'.

Gelatin is also an ingredient sometimes made from pork

which can also be found in a wide range of foods, sweet and savoury.

But lists of ingredients are not always easy to find,

and are often only written in the tiniest of print

and difficult to read.

So for Muslims living in a non-Muslim country

it can be hard to live without making mistakes,

but thank God we are judged by our intentions,

and know from the Qur'an

that God is the Most Just of Judges.