Ramadan Fastathon
While I have learned to stream NPR (National Public Radio) on my computer in Kuwait, nothing beats listening to it in “real time” here. Today, while listening, I learned that university students locally are fasting in support of their Islamic brothers and sisters, and they call it a “Fastathon”. They sign up to fast for a day, and can attend that night’s Ifthar supper. Local merchants will donate money to some charity for every person who signs up.
The interviews – some students got it – that fasting cleanses the system, that it is to experience sympathy with the poor . . . and then there is one poor sap who says “Yeh, I heard of Ramadan. I think it is a political party that causes problems in the Middle East.” Doh.
My Mother just called to ask if Omar, my father’s health care aid, can eat the lentil soup I fixed for their supper. “No! No!” I cry, “it has Jimmy Dean sausage in it!” but Mom says it is no problem, as Dad really wants the chicken noodle soup from last night, and that one is totally halal. Omar can’t eat until seven, so they are waiting so they can all eat together. Ramadan awareness is definitely on the rise here.
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bonjour ya khalti,
I think the Campbells soup is only halal-ish, but definitely better than a soup with khanzeer, which probably falls into the egregiously non-halal category. nerd that I am, I looked up the GCC standards:
2 – Terminology
2/1 Al Zakah: Slaughtering an animal in accordance to the Islamic Law (Shari’a). This is performed in one of the following ways:
2/1/1 Al Zabeh: (Slaughter): Cutting the throat: cutting the trachea and esophagus and the jugular veins, usually used for sheep, cattle and poultry.
and
3- Requirements
3/1 Requirements of the animal that is to be slaughtered:
3/1/1 The animal must not be one whose meat Muslims have been prohibited from eating, such as:
3/1/1/1 Meeta (carrion), Monkhaniqa (an animal that died by suffocation), Mawqooza (one that has been fatally beaten), Mutaradiya (one that has fallen from a height or into a pit), Nateeha (one that has been butted to death), or Ma Akal Assab’ (the remains of what the lion or a bird of prey has eaten and Ma ohilla ligheir Allah bihi (what has been slaughtered in a name other than that of Allah).
3/1/1/2 Pigs, dogs, domesticated donkeys, elephants and mules.
3/1/1/3 Wild animals such as lions, leopards and bears.
3/1/1/4 Birds of prey with sharp talons that they use in hunting, such as eagles and falcons.
3/2 Requirements of the slaughterer (Al Muzakki) and the instrument of slaughter:
3/2/1 The slaughterer must a Muslim, or a person of the scriptures, (Ahl Al Kitab, i.e. a Jew or a Christian).
3/2/2 The slaughter must be performed under the supervision of a Muslim who has been entrusted with the job and who knows the rules of slaughter (Zakah) under Islamic Law (Shari’a).
3/2/3 The instrument used for slaughtering the animal should be made of any material except bone or nails (Dhofr).
3/2/4 The slaughter instrument should be clean and sharp, cutting with its edge and not by its weight. The slaying operation should be done as thoroughly as possible.
3/2/5 The mechanical blade in slaughterhouses that follow this system should be calibrated to cut only the four jugular veins and not other parts of the neck. This should be done from the front and not from the sides of the neck.
3/2/6 It is not allowed to hit the animal on the head or to use any method similar to that (such as a stun gun, stun hammer and carbon dioxide).
3/2/7 The animals stay alive – in the event that low-grade electrical stunning is used on the head alone – in order that the Zakah (slaughter) may be performed. The sign for that is that the animal should move when it is slaughtered. If it dies before the Zakah then it is considered to be Mawqooza (fatally beaten) and is rejected. Electrical stunning is not permitted for poultry.
3/3 The requirements of the method of slaughter (Al Zakah).
3/3/1 Mention of the name of Allah when slaughtering (Bismillah).
3/3/2 That the slaughter (Zakah) of the animal be carried out in one of the Islamic Law (Shari’a) ways mentioned in Section 2/1.
3/3/3 The animal is slaughtered by cutting the trachea, the esophagus and the jugular veins from the front, from the side of the chest, not on the side of the back of the neck or the back.
3/3/4 The neck of the animal must not be cut or broken or any other similar action undertaken, until the bleeding has stopped.
3/3/5 No part of the animal is cut until the slaughter (Zakah) has been performed.
3/3/6 Animals should not be slaughtered nor stored in places, nor using instruments that have been used on animals whose meat Muslims are forbidden to eat.
(http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/186/gcc-standard-for-islamic-halal-slaughter-regulations-for-meat-and-poultry-2004)
The main issues here are the method of slaughter and the bismillah. Campbells might meet the first but probably not the second … although I could be wrong, as certainly the halal products market is sizeable and growing! I can’t find anything on the corporate website, and I don’t recall seeing CSC products in the Levant, but … perhaps I haven’t been looking carefully.
anyway please don’t share all this with Grandma and Grandpa – I don’t want to discourage them from this new and most welcome step into ecumenicalism. perhaps one day soon they will stop asking me how my work on ‘oppressed Muslim women’ is :-)!
love petite a.
Campbells??!! Haram, haram, little diamond! I am making everything fresh!
In Kuwait, Campbells is on the shelf at the Sultan Center, but not in the Jamiya – so it must meet some standards of OK’ness.
thank you for all that good information! I had no idea – I had never seen it spelled out so clearly before. What about shellfish – I remember in Tunis, they would not eat shrimp, and said shrimp were haram, but in Kuwait, everyone eats shrimp. . .? I think in the Torah, there are prohibitions against anything without scales – no eels, no shellfish, but of course, for us, everything was “made clean”.
Mark 7
1 Then the Pharisees, and some of the scribes gathered together to him, having come from Jerusalem.
2 Now when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with defiled, that is, unwashed, hands, they found fault.
3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, don’t eat unless they wash their hands and forearms, holding to the tradition of the elders.
4 They don’t eat when they come from the marketplace, unless they bathe themselves, and there are many other things, which they have received to hold to: washings of cups, pitchers, bronze vessels, and couches.)
5 The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don’t your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?”
6 He answered them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,’This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8 “For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men-the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.”
9 He said to them, “Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.
10 For Moses said,’Honor your father and your mother;’ and,’He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’
11 But you say,’If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban, that is to say, given to God;”‘
12 then you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother,
13 making void the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. You do many things like this.”
14 He called all the multitude to himself, and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand.
15 There is nothing from outside of the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.
16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”
17 When he had entered into a house away from the multitude, his disciples asked him about the parable.
18 He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him,
19 because it doesn’t go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, thus purifying all foods?”
20 He said, “That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man.
21 For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,
22 covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.
23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
ahh … homemade chicken noodle soup … what a concept. I come from the we-joined-a-country-club-to-avoid-cooking branch of the family so naturally I assumed it was store-bought :-).
even if you say bismallah while making the soup its not enough to make the meat halal – its halal-ness is not only the type of meat (I think its just things with shells but I’m not positive) but how it was killed, respectfully and in a manner that allows the blood to drain. otherwise, its meet, dead (related etymologically to the ba7r al-mayt, the Dead Sea), and not fit for human consumption.
On the subject of food there is a lovely hadith I often recall when thinking of Americans’ (and many others …) tendency to over-eat. The Prophet (SA`AS for your Muslim readers) advises us all that the best practice is to fill the stomach 1/3 with food, 1/3 with water, and 1/3 with empty space, for moderation. of course anyone investigating my tummy would find me honoring the hadith far more in the breach than the observance … or at least curious as to where the Big Red gum fits!
love petite a.