Halal

Halal restaurant in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

when you were in India or some other foreign country you were never sure whether the meat had been slaughtered in the correct way; you had to ask and you couldn’t always get answers; you had sometimes to go without. ~ V. S. Naipaul

Halal (/həˈlɑːl/; Arabic: حلال, ḥalāl) is an Arabic word that translates to "permissible" in English. In the Quran, the word halal is contrasted with haram (forbidden). This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification known as "the five decisions": mandatory, recommended, neutral, reprehensible and forbidden. Islamic jurists disagree on whether the term halal covers the first two or the first four of these categories. In recent times, Islamic movements seeking to mobilize the masses and authors writing for a popular audience have emphasized the simpler distinction of halal and haram.

Quotes

• Some argue that the greater halal is actually avoiding killing animals at all to eat, although this is a tiny minority among those I interviewed.
  • Islam and Morality: A Philosophical Introduction Oliver Leaman · 2019

• A debate on stunned-halal versus non-stunned halal is very prominent and controversial among the halal certifying bodies.
  • Political Ecologies of Meat Jody Emel, ‎Harvey Neo · 2015

• They acknowledge that the vast majority of Halal is pre-stunned and they seek to ban non-stun for both Halal and Kosher and so do not steer into the targeting of one religious group.
  • Halal Slaughter of Livestock: Animal Welfare Science, ... Awal Fuseini · 2022

• I asked what difference there was for him between being in Bombay and being in Pakistan. He said that for him, as a businessman, there was no difference; business was business. But when you were in India or some other foreign country you were never sure whether the meat had been slaughtered in the correct way; you had to ask and you couldn’t always get answers; you had sometimes to go without.
  • Naipaul, V.S. - Among the Believers (Vintage, 1982)