1. Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims
  2. Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims

Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims

113 Questions

I am a follower of Ayatollah Syed Ali Sistani, living in Japan. If packaged food has ingredients like emulsifier, shortening, gelatin, etc., and their source is not mentioned, is it halal or should I avoid it?
Zaid Alsalami

Bismihi ta'āla

Wherever you are, and whichever country you may be in, if its non-Muslim country, or even in some cases Muslim country, it is important to check and verify the ingredients of it is not made by Muslim manufacturer. 

1. If it does not have anything haram, and you have assurance that there is no shar'i issue with it, you can consider it halal.

2. Ihtiyat is always good. If you are uncomfortable about a certain product, being halal or haram, best to avoid. 

3. It is not you absolute duty to investigate, and pry into everything, but you cannot easily turn away from it as well. 

Try to stick with things you know are made in Muslim country. Try to find alternatives, and remember that with the difficulty you endure, you will be rewarded more.

And Allah knows best
According to the teachings of Ahlul Bayt, is it permissible to keep certain types of food or any item in storage for a long period of time, with the intention of waiting for its value to increase before selling it?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

Monopoly of food required by people is not allowed in Islam. If the items of food are not required in people daily life and keeping it in storage does not harm general public, then can be permissible but if keeping it is storage harms people in anyway, then it is not allowed at all.

Wassalam.
If food containing haram meat (for example, dumplings where the meat is fully enclosed and does not touch the cooking oil) is fried, does the cooking oil remain halal?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

Meat inside the dumpling is usually cooked by the heat of the cooking oil, that is why such oil touches the meat in direct or indirect way, so, if the meat was non Halal, the cooking oil will not remain Tahir.

Wassalam.
If a container of cat food was washed under tap water, causing spills, and some small amount of water was added to purify it without removing the impurity, does that make the sink area impure?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

When tap water is used and the Najis item (A'yn al-Najasah) is removed then there is no question of impurity remains. Cat food by itself is not necessarily Najis unless it contains Najis ingradeint.

Wassalam.