After some informative comments from a reader, Emre Metin, I've decided to highlight some of the things that he's researched on the topic.
Emre referenced the following sources:
- Bazmool M. The Fiqh Principle of Istihala – Changing from impure to pure, (translated by Moosa Richardson and a fatwa given by Shaykh al-Albaani)
- Venien, A., & Levieux, D. Differentiation of bovine from porcine gelatins using polyclonal anti-peptide antibodies in indirect and competitive indirect ELISA. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 2005;39:418–424.
- Zhang G, Liu T, Wang Q, Chen L, Lei J, Luo J, Ma G, Su Z. Mass spectrometric detection of marker peptides in tryptic digests of gelatin: A new method to differentiate between bovine and porcine gelatin Food Hydrocolloids,2009;23:2001-2007
The crux of the argument is summed up in the following statement from Emre:
According to Islam, when something changes its composition until it can not be related to its source, it is considered as a completely different material. This is called istihala.
The paper referenced above in [3], finds that it is possible to identify the source of Gelatin by looking for "marker peptides" that will point the source of the Gelatin as being either Bovine or Porcine. So, has the Gelatin then in face been changed in composition to the point that "it can not be related to its source" ?
Allah knows best. Let's not deceive ourselves thinking we can deceive our Creator?
2 comments:
Pig, and its by-products, has a very different ruling than any other animal. Pig, no matter how it is slaughtered, cleaned, tanned, etc, will NEVER be considered halaal for use/consumption.
Salam alaykum. Theres an important consideration which was only hinted at in the comments of the old post. As far as I know, the reasoning used by those authorities who allow gelatin from halal animals not properly slaughtered is not based on istihala. Rather it is based on the understanding that those parts of a halal animal in which blood does not flow are considered pure regardless of manner of death. This is the Hanafi position on the matter. Thus there would be no question of porcine gelatin being halal.
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