Eating Halal & Your Character

The other day, my seven-years old daughter asked me a seemingly very straightforward question for which, as a matter of fact,  I had no clear answer. She asked, “Dad, how can we expect a non-Muslim to convert to Islam if we give him or her  haram items to eat” I guess I need to clarify this issue a bit before we can go any further on this topic.

I have been living in Japan for the last seventeen years now. Most of our neighbors in Tokyo, of course,  are non-Muslims as you may guess. We try to establish good relationship with all of them and, sometimes, invite them to our home with the intention of giving `Dawah` We try our best to buy halal-only food items for our home to serve our Muslim and not-yet-Muslim friends or eat ourselves.  However, sometimes, despite all our best efforts and intentions, we end up buying something which is not halal.  In that situation, we have to get rid of that unwanted item by giving it to a non-Muslim neighbor.  That was the issue which infuriated my daughter.

We often see in Japan and elsewhere that some of the Muslims do not think seriously about eating Halal food items. Many of them mistakenly believe that with the exception of pork and wine, every thing is halal.  So they not see any problem eating non-halal meat, beef or chicken or other food items having haram ingredients in one or the other.

Another type of Muslims unfortunately think that while eating pork is strictly forbidden in Islam, it is OK to drink wine as it is not as much haram as pork is.  Yet another type of ultra-modern Muslims living in the West, Japan and other countries think that removing pork ingredients from soup or curry will make the remainder of the dish as “Halal”

Early Islamic history abounds with countless examples when some companion or another pious person attributed the character of people to the food items they consumed in their past.  If we study  early Islamic history, we come to know that eating non-halal items could weaken our iman in many different ways. What is your take on this issue? How do you this affecting your character and that of your kids, family or friends? What do you suggest should be the guiding for Muslims who have been living in non-Muslim societies and have to make significant efforts to find halal ingredients from nearby shops etc.?

Please open up yourself and let us know what you think the way you think about the Halal issue which is so important for 1.5 billion people all around the world.

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