At a Halaal conference hosted in Turkey several years ago, some scholars discussed the Shari’ah ruling of gelatine. Some were of the opinion that the gelatine derived from Halaal animals would be Halaal and, if derived from Haraam animals, it would be Haraam. Others were of the view that, since there is a complete metamorphosis of the Haraam that takes place during the process of deriving the gelatine, it would neither be conditional for the animal to be Halaal nor for the animal to be slaughtered in the manner prescribed by the Shari’ah for Halaal slaughter. Hence, the proponents of the latter view deemed the use of such gelatine permissible according The Shari’ah.
Those Fatawa which I have read on the topic have a common factor: If a complete metamorphosis of the Haraam takes place, it will be permissible to use the gelatine. If not, it will be permissible to use the gelatine derived from Halaal means and it will not be permissible to use gelatine derived from Haraam means.
I consider myself very fortunate in that Allah d has blessed me with knowledge of His Deen and, together with that, used me for the service of Halaal and Haraam. Hence, considering it my twofold responsibility, I started researching this topic and, upon returning from my journey, requested a gelatine production plant to guide me in this regard so that the Ummah at large could benefit from my research. May Allah d reward them for acceding to my request and for giving me a tour of their factory during one of my visits to Lahore.
First of all, I got to meet the Head of their Research and Development Department who verbally explained the entire process to me. There was a lot of technical jargon which made it very difficult for a first timer to understand. Nevertheless, when one’s intention is good, Allah d makes everything easy! I understood approximately 50% of what he had said and asked him to explain the rest in simple terms.
The simple question I asked was: “Does a complete metamorphosis take place during the process or not?” His answer was just as simple: “No! We merely remove a special part of the bone with the utmost care.”
Thereafter, Mufti Ahsan Zafar and I went on a complete tour of the plant, saw every process step by step, asked one question after the other and collected the answers.
May Allah d accept this effort and make it a means of guiding the Ummah.
By:
Mufti Yusuf Abdur-Razzaaq
Chief Executive Officer:
SANHA Halaal Associates Pakistan
To read full research paper please download pdf copy below.
Gelatin Extracted From Bones |
Gelatin Extracted From Bones |
Gelatin Extracted From Bones |