Question

Asslaamu alaikum
What is the status of meat/chicken in Makkah and Madinah. There are many messages saying it is not permissible to eat at all food places there.
How does one determine what is halal or not?
I have read about the issues of imported meat and issues with mechanical slaughter, but it seems the Fiqh councils of the country have approved mechanical slaughter. Is it simply a case of difference of opinion between scholars or does one need to still be careful?
Also what about food on airlines that are from muslim countries such as Egypt Air ,Qatar Airways etc. When I have emailed them the response simply states all food is halal according to Islamic principles without providing further detail. Is this sufficient or not?

Answer

From a legal standpoint it is permissible to accept the statement of a Muslim in regards to halal meat and poultry. Hence, if a Muslim individual or organisation state that the meat and poultry they are serving is halal then it is permissible to consume it.

At the same time we do have to acknowledge that there have been multiple cases of corruption in the halal meat industry where organisations claimed that they were selling halal meat but it turned out otherwise. For this reason, even though it is legally permissible to consume meat labelled as halal, we would still advise carrying out some basic checks to ensure that the meat and poultry is actually halal. These checks can include determining who the meat supplier is and their policies pertaining to halal animal slaughter to ensure they conform to the guidelines set out by shari’ah.

As for the issue of mechanical slaughter, this has been researched in detail by the likes of Mufti Taqi Usmani. He concludes that the current methods of mechanical slaughter do not fulfil the requirements of shari’ah. Majority of the scholars are also of the same opinion and we also adopt this position.

Answered by:
Ifta Research Fellow

Checked & Approved by:
Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Mufti Zubair Patel