In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful
Peace be upon you, Your Eminence Sayed..
It is often said that since you are in an Islamic country, the food is mostly lawful (ḥalāl)..! What is meant by food is restaurant food..!
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When we bring up talk among people about the chicken of such-and-such restaurant..! or its meat,,? we are met with this reply: “Do not mention the name of a specific restaurant; cutting off livelihoods is forbidden” * Okay, so how do we determine whether a certain place is lawful or forbidden when he refuses to mention any specific name, and the talk is only vague—don't eat, don't eat—and we don't know where to eat from,,? And if we turn to home food, we see the e-mails that insist Maggi cubes are made from animal bones, etc., etc...! The talk is very long, but there is no source or name for whose food we should beware of dealing with, except for the one certain matter, which is the American restaurants. Okay, and what about the local restaurants, some of which very, very many people criticize without mentioning a name? Here, what should our position be: do we ignore the talk? Or do we refrain from most restaurants because we do not know which restaurant among them is lawful and which is forbidden?
Answer
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In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful
Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings
Regarding eating in restaurants, here is a set of rulings on this matter. The juristic rule states that everything sold in the Muslims' market by a Muslim is lawful, unless you know that it is forbidden and that it was not slaughtered according to the method prescribed by the Shariʿa.
This knowledge is obtained only either through being informed by the one in possession (ṣāḥib al-yad), that is, the shop owner and the seller of the meat, by his saying that this meat is from an unbelieving (kāfir) country or was slaughtered not according to the prescribed method; or that you yourself know directly and see with your own eyes that it is meat not in accordance with the Shariʿa; or that two just (ʿādil) persons, or one trustworthy person who does not lie, inform you that he saw with his own eyes or that the shop owner told him..
As for guesses, propaganda and rumors, they have no standing in the Shariʿa.
Yes, it may become well known in a certain area that its meat is mostly not in accordance with the Shariʿa, or there may be another doubt, such as meat not in accordance with the Shariʿa being very low-cost and the shop owner being known as not religious and as working for profit at the expense of the Shariʿa. Here some doubt and supposition may form that this meat being sold is forbidden, and here one can take precaution, for example by asking, or by looking for an alternative.
Regarding restaurants with international brands: some of them, not all, import the meat ready-made with its seasoning mix from the restaurant's own country. So if the country of origin is an unbelieving one and you know that this restaurant brings its meat from that same country, then this will be forbidden..
But if you do not know that, or the restaurant takes its meat from the country it is in (that is, the Muslim country), then here it is lawful..
Likewise regarding the ingredients in foods: establishing anything must be based on information, and the Shariʿa has specified the way of obtaining it so that rumors do not multiply, people are not harmed, and people are not put in hardship. So if one knows it himself, or sees it, or two just persons inform him that they saw it or that the owner himself informed them—for example, by its being written on the product—this is acted upon. As for rumors whose source is unknown, there is no legal obligation to act upon them..
Some may refrain from certain products as a personal choice, to take more care and caution against diseases or for some other reason; this is a personal matter that carries no legal (sharʿi) designation.. unless that predominates in the market, as we said.
And Allah knows best, and He is the Grantor of success
