Does ‘Halal’ mean spitting in the food according to Islam? Read more
Claim
The Tamil Nadu court has said that food cannot be halal according to Islam unless the food is made by a Muslim and he does not spit. Decision has to be taken – they have taken it.
Rating
Explanation
In the above post, the user claimed that the Tamil Nadu court has said that according to Islam, the food cannot be halal if it’s not made by a Muslim and if he does not spit in it. This weird claim is shared by many different social media users which can be seen here, here, and here. Some users even went on to add that the crowds have decreased in the shops. Come let’s check the authenticity of this claim.
What’s the truth?
When we started our research using the relevant keywords, interestingly we came to know that the case is from Kerala 2021 and not from Tamil Nadu as the social media claims.
When we intensified our research we found the case was filed by the former president of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) in Kerala, S.R Kumar, against the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) which manages the famous Sabarimala temple.
In his petition against the board, Kumar claimed that the temple used spoilt jaggery in their offerings to devotees and raised objections against using halal-certified jaggery at the Hindu temple to prepare the Nivedyam and Prasadam. Moreover, we got a copy of the petition from the website verdictum.in, where he has accused the Travancore Devaswom Board of practicing other religious rituals inside a temple.
According to his plea in the ninth point, “The religious scholars of the Muslim community have been proclaiming publicly that saliva is a necessary ingredient for certifying Halal in the preparation of food materials. The religious scholars took the above view by interpreting holy texts and its valid interpretations. However, different views were also expressed by a section of religious leaders. In view of the recent controversy as regards spitting on food materials to make it Halal and the responses from religious scholars, people at large are highly anxious and obnoxious on the use of Halal certified food materials even for the household purposes. It is highly disheartening to see that the food materials prepared following the rituals and religious practices of another religion with its certification is accepted as food material for the preparation of Nivedyam/Prasada in a Hindu temple having its own rituals and customs.”
This proves that this is the plea by the petitioner and not a statement by any Muslim group or leader or an institution. When we dug a little deep we found a report from the News Minute with the title “Do you know meaning of halal? Kerala HC asks petitioner over Sabarimala jaggery row” uploaded on 25 November, 2021.
Here, the Kerala High Court told the petitioner SJR Kumar to go deep into the concept of halal before challenging the use of halal products. According to the LiveLaw.in the court said, “The concept of halal only says that certain things are prohibited; all other things are halal. This certification only says that those prohibited materials are not included in a particular product.”
The evidence clearly proves that the above circulated message is taken out of context from the petition filed by SJR Kumar in Kerala and is falsely spread as done by Muslims.
Conclusion:
Therefore, we conclude through our investigation that the viral post claiming ‘Spitting is a part of halal’ is completely false. To be precise, the viral post has misinterpreted the claim made by a Hindu petitioner as a work carried out by Muslims group. Moreover, the case was not filed in Tamil Nadu rather it was from Kerala 2021.
