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UNDERSTANDING THE HARMS OF CONSUMING HARAAM
Consuming haraam can be likened to consuming poison. Understanding this matter and its harms cannot be overstressed. Today Muslims have become very lax when it comes to the consumption of haraam. We go even further and justify consuming haraam. We use excuses and terms such as cost, halal friendly and enjoyment of life in eating out. Even more dangerous are the so called halal authorities who look for technicalities to make doubtful and haraam into halal. These bodies include SANHA, MJCHT, NIHT, and ICSA, to name a few. In this very serious matter the haq or truth must be made clear so that we as Muslims can make informed choices and decisions regarding what we consume and use our aql or intelligence in this matter together with our conscience rather than relying on organisations that make millions of rands in certifying products as halal. In this article we will focus on the analogy of poison.
If a person consumes poison willingly they will be guilty of wilfully harming themselves or suicide. If a person consumes poison by mistake or thinking that the poison is not harmful, they will still feel the effects of the poison and suffer the consequences. Even if a scientist or doctor where to tell such a person that the item consumed will not harm them, they will still suffer the consequences and feel the effects of poison consumption. They will not be able to say (and will be considered fools if they were to say) that the poison should not harm them because it’s not their fault or because they didn’t know or because they took it trusting someone whom they thought knew better.
Haraam is spiritual poison and the same principle applies. By consuming haraam we are poisoning our souls and as such we become sick Muslims in terms of our imaan. So we trust the so called halal authorities and make various excuses and consume haraam and become sick. We then find that Muslims find it difficult to accept the laws of ALLAH, become lazy to perform Salah etc. And become Muslim in name only with no imaan in our soul.
Ask yourself if someone were to offer you food or drink or even water that the health authorities say may be poisonous, what will you do? If warnings were put out by the health authorities warning us not to drink water from the taps due to possible poisoning and some government officials were to tell us to ignore the warnings and drink the water, what will you do? Many people will take extreme precaution with regard to a simple thing like water. But because we don’t see the physical effects of haraam poisoning (as it affects the soul and imaan), we don’t take this matter as serious as we should. Weather we want to accept it or not, one of the major downfalls of this ummat and one of its most destructive forces IS THE CONSUMSSION OF HARAAM.
This is haq
Even sincere Muslims who are particular about halal and haraam will unfortunately also at times consume haraam unwittingly. To offset this we suggest that Muslims should drink zamzam water more often and from time to time recite ayaat of the QURAAN such as ayaatul kursi, the three quls or some ayats of the manzil and blow into your food or drink. This may offset or cleans some of the harms of the effects of haraam consumed in a similar way as alkaline offsets acid. This is not a licence to consume haraam but a precaution against haraam consumed unwittingly.
