Eating Haram meat but Can't Go Vegan due to health reasons

[Abdilhayy]

Assalamu 'alaykum.

I'm a revert to Islam and I live in a non-Muslim part of the US - there's no halal grocers or restaurants at all. 

I have some health issues, being underweight and I live in a rather poor household. I don't have enough money to go vegan and get correct nutrition without eating meat - as I already don't get correct nutrition. The only meat available isn't slain in accordance with Islamic law.

I honestly don't know what to do and I feel terrible whenever I eat, is there any ahadith or anything about a situation where the only meat available is haram?

[Abdilhayy]

I also heard that eating haram meat invalidates your salah, is that true? 

[Diaz]

2 hours ago, Baba Piruz said:

there's no halal grocers or restaurants at all

wa alaikum al salam, in which state do you live in brother? You can order online from local halal butcher. There are alot of halal food in USA. 

[Ashvazdanghe]

16 hours ago, Baba Piruz said:

I also heard that eating haram meat invalidates your salah, is that true? 

Salam certainly it's not true  which it doesn't invalidate your Salah anyway it causes depriving from total benefiting from your Salah .

What is the ruling regarding eating harām (forbidden) food?

Although such acts may take place erroneously, based on many narratives passed on to us from the Ahlulbayt ((عليه السلام).), they leave their negative impacts on man's life causing him at times to be deprived of success. Therefore, one must be careful to eat halal food and with this care and concern he should speed up his move in the path prescribed by God.

 

Detailed Answer

 

Quote

If a person knows that the meat or food is harām, i.e. he knows the food and also the rules applicable to it, yet he eats it, he has committed a sin. His action is defined and considered as an act of "defiance against God's law", and there is no doubt that it will entail divine punishment. Obviously, this sin leaves its negative impacts on the man's life.

 

Imam Sadeq ((عليه السلام).) says about the destructive impacts of sins, "The effect of this sin is that it deprives [the sinner] of worshipping. Sometimes, a man commits a sin at day time as a result of which he becomes deprived of staying awake and offering Night Prayers[1] except for when he repents after his iniquity and reforms (himself).”[2]

 

Certainly, eating harām food will leave its natural and implicit effects on the sinner's soul and body. The scholars of ethics have spoken at length about the explicit and implicit impacts of eating such types of food and they are of the view that although one is not punished for eating the food, he will not escape its effects. That is, he will be deprived of some chances of success and it will affect his soul in an unignorable way. That is why, it has been greatly emphasized in the Quran that one should be careful about the food he eats.

Quote

Someone brought the Holy Prophet ((صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم)) a bowl of milk to drink but he did not drink it until he made sure that it was halal. "The prophets before me were ordered not to eat anything but halal food and not to do a task but a befitting one."[4]

 

The infallible imams have warned their followers about the impacts of food on children.[5]

https://www.islamquest.net/en/archive/fa1431

[Ashvazdanghe]

13 hours ago, Baba Piruz said:

I also heard that eating haram meat invalidates your salah, is that true? 

Hello, does eating haram invalidate the prayer, like animal meat is haram meat and... is it true that they say...
(Education: Diploma, 17 years old)

Hello
Does eating haram invalidate the prayer?
Like the meat of forbidden animals, meat and..
Is it true that they say that if you eat, prayers will not be accepted for three days?

Adviser: Sayed Mojtaba Navab

With greetings and congratulations on the blessed days of Shabaniyah and wishing happiness and health to my dear brother! Eating the meat of a forbidden animal does not invalidate the prayer, but it should be avoided, and if  Allah forbids it has been done, one should repent and not repeat it again. Yes, if there is blood, skin, hair, or moisture from it on the person's body, his prayer is invalid and he must remove it and pray, and what is in the narrations only indicates the seriousness and badness of that act, not that Allah forbids  we should not pray because Not Acceptable . Not with true repentance, Allahwilling, God is the Most Merciful. Be successful, positive and victorious and proud!

https://rasekhoon.net/conference/show/614208/با-سلام

[Ashvazdanghe]

13 hours ago, Baba Piruz said:

is there any ahadith or anything about a situation where the only meat available is haram?

Salam only in case of saving life in dire situation you can use Haram meat which you must eat Halal meat every fourty days based on your budget which buying it doesn't cause budget problem for you  which you can use other available nutrition likewise  beans  instead of Haram meat .

9 Healthy Beans and Legumes You Should Try

    Chickpeas
    Lentils
    Peas
    Kidney beans
    Black beans
    Soybeans
    Pinto beans
    Navy beans
    Peanuts
    Bottom line

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/healthiest-beans-legumes

https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/beans/

Quote

He has forbidden you only carrion, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been offered to other than Allah. But if someone is compelled [to eat any of that], without being rebellious or aggressive, indeed Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful. (115)

 إِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَيْتَةَ وَالدَّمَ وَلَحْمَ الْخِنزِيرِ وَمَا أُهِلَّ لِغَيْرِ اللَّهِ بِهِ ۖ فَمَنِ اضْطُرَّ غَيْرَ بَاغٍ وَلَا عَادٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ ‎﴿١١٥﴾‏

https://tanzil.net/#16:115

 

Do not eat meat of dead animal . Because when the animal dies, the blood is corrupted before anything else and causes some kind of poisoning, hence the animals that were strangled, horned, thrown, beaten and torn, whose death is not accompanied by the complete release of blood. Eating them is forbidden in Islam. [17]
Of all the forbidden meat animals, only the name of the pig is mentioned in this verse, because its consumption was widespread.
Imam Sadiq (عليه السلام) said about the meat of a dead animal: No one approached it unless he was overtaken by weakness, thinness, lassitude, and sudden death.
Being  bloodthirsty was a custom of Jahiliyyah. This work causes hardening of heart and cruelty, to the extent that it carries the risk of killing the child or parents. A bloodthirsty does not know a friend or a comrade. [18] Therefore, eating blood is forbidden, but there is no problem in injecting it.

https://www.almubin.com/commentary/5:3

 

13 hours ago, Baba Piruz said:

The only meat available isn't slain in accordance with Islamic law.

Can the slaughtered meat of the Non-Muslims be used (lawfully)?

Concise answer

The opinion of the Shia' jurists and the School of Thought of the Ahl al-Bayt (the family of the Noble Prophet of Islam (s)) is that meat that has not been slaughtered according to Islamic laws, the ruling is that it is like regular dead meat (animal flesh or meat that is just found dead on the ground at is not known if it was slaughtered Islamically or not.) Their meat (the People of the Book) is haram (forbidden) and eating their meat is not allowed (according to Islamic law.)

 

Detailed Answer

Quote

But the Sunnis [4] (except among them the Hanbalis who are in agreement with the Shia's) have a different opinion regarding this issue. They say that meat that was slaughtered by the hand of a disbeliever (Kufar) that is NOT a Person of the Book (Christian or Jew) is not halal. And from this viewpoint they do not differ from the Shia's. But eating the slaughtered meat of the disbelievers who are People of the Book is halal to eat. [5] But a Shia' can not act according to their school of thought! The responsibility of Shia's (according to Islamic laws) is to act according to the laws of the Ahl al-Bayt (Family of the Prophet).

https://www.islamquest.net/en/archive/fa1939

 

[Ashvazdanghe]

Addendum

cowpea

"black-eyed pea," it is also known as "goat pea" and "southern pea," and the most common commercial variety in the United States is called the California Blackeye

 

Mung beans

Mung beans are a delicious and easy to prepare meal. Mung beans have been enjoyed over centuries in many countries, especially in the Asian countries where they originated. Most people enjoy Mung beans because they are tasty and can be eaten with a combination of other foods such as rice and vegetables. The nutritional value of Mung beans is just amazing, not to mention their ability to help in weight loss, especially for those battling with their weight despite employing hard and difficult techniques that don't help them achieve their ideal weight.

https://mungbeansusa.com/

[Ashvazdanghe]

 

How To Cook Black-Eyed Peas

https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a25658229/how-to-cook-black-eyed-peas/

Mung Beans the Superfood for Health

Quote

A popular ingredient around the globe, mung beans are a superfood for health that can be cooked whole with or without the skin (although removing the skin is most common). Another popular way to eat mung beans is to sprout them into mung bean sprouts - which are often just referred to as bean sprouts.

Mung beans can be sprouted by soaking dry whole beans in a jar of water for 8 to 10 hours under artificial light (not direct sunlight). After 8 to 10 hours, the water is drained from the jar and replaced with just enough water to cover the top of the beans and placed in a dark cupboard. Drain the water and rinse the beans twice a day, repeating the process for four to five days. Eventually, the mung beans will shed their shells and sprout into the type of bean sprouts that you often see in Asian foods like spring rolls and pho.

https://mungbeansusa.com/

Basic Preparation Instructions for Mung Beans

Quote

Instructions

Stovetop

1. Rinse beans before cooking. Place 1 cup beans in a large pot with 3 cups water and 1 tsp salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until tender, about 30 minutes; drain well.

Multi-Cooker

1. Rinse beans before cooking. Place 1 cup beans, 3 cups water and 1 tsp salt in the pot of a multi-cooker. Set the valve to sealing. On manual setting and high pressure, set for 6 minutes. Natural release the pressure for 20 minutes; drain well.

Sprouting Instructions

1. Sort and rinse ⅓ cup beans. Place in a bowl or jar with 1 cup cool water. Cover with a clean cloth and let soak at room temperature for 8–12 hours, then rinse again. Repeat for 2–3 days for little sweet sprouts, or 4–5 days for bigger sprouts.

https://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes/how-to-make/mung-beans-preparation-instructions/

Quote

You can also find mung beans split in half with the husk removed, which is referred to as moong dal (so moong dal and split mung beans are the same thing). Moong dal will have slightly less dietary fiber, and will cook faster than whole mung beans.

Do you need to soak mung beans?

No! Mung beans are small and quick to cook compared to other beans like black beans or chickpeas, so no soaking is required before cooking them.

Quote

The best way to cook mung beans

If you ask me what the best way to cook literally any other bean is, I'll tell you it's the Instant Pot. But man oh man are mung beans tricky to get right this way! 

Since these are quick cooking beans that don't require soaking, my recommendation is to cook them on the stovetop so you can monitor them to see when they are perfectly done. 

How to store mung beans.

If you cook up a big batch (or five) of mung beans, they'll last about 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge. You can also freeze mung beans (which is what I've done with all my excess mung). 

To freeze mung beans, simply portion them into freezer bags (I love these reusable silicon freezer bags), squeeze the air out, label them, and pop into the freezer. Your beans will be good for about 3 months in the freezer. 

How to Cook Mung Beans

Learn how to make perfectly cooked mung beans on the stovetop, in the Instant Pot, or in a slow cooker.

Quote

 

 

 

 

 

 

Calories 718kcal

Author Katie Trant

Equipment

• Instant Pot

Ingredients

• 1 cup mung beans
• water

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Rinse your mung beans well, and check over for any stones.

Stovetop instructions

• Place 1 cup mung beans and 3 cups water in a large pot.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the beans are tender. This will take about 30 minutes.

Instant Pot instructions

• Place 1 cup mung beans and 3 cups of water into the insert of an Instant Pot.
• Seal the lid and ensure that it is set to "sealing".
• Set to high pressure for 0 (zero) minutes.
• Once the Instant Pot has reached pressure it will beep and start naturally releasing the pressure. Allow to natural release for 10 minutes, and then flip the valve to "venting" and release the remaining pressure.

Slow Cooker instructions

• Place 1 cup of beans and 3 cups of water in the slow cooker.
• Set to HIGH for 3 hours, or LOW for 6 hours. Check beans towards the end of the cooking time.

Notes

• You can scale the quantity of beans up or down, but it should always be one part beans to three parts of water for cooking.
• Drain any remaining water when the beans are cooked.
• Cooked mung beans can be stored for up to 5 days in the fridge, or 3 months in the freezer. 

Nutrition

Calories: 718kcal | Carbohydrates: 130g | Protein: 49g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 31mg | Potassium: 2579mg | Fiber: 34g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 236IU | Vitamin C: 10mg | Calcium: 273mg | Iron: 14mg

 

https://www.heynutritionlady.com/how-to-cook-mung-beans/

 

[Guest Hello]

Salamu Alaikum. I would also reach out to a nutrition forum and get their input. 

You could eat seafood if you don't mind it. It's even healthier. And eggs are nutritionally similar to meat. Dairy is also great if you're not lactose intolerant. 

Also why do you have to go vegan? It's not a very healthy or wise diet, vegetarian is much better and more affordable. If I'm not mistaken, Islam discourages us from eating meat everyday anyway. According to my understanding, we should only eat meat at least once every 40 days. If you've done that, you've fulfilled your nutritional requirements from meat. I hope someone more knowledgeable and eloquent could elaborate on that for us.

[Guest Hello]

@mods I just submitted a post for approval. I would appreciate it if you would kindly tack this onto it:

I found this article that touches this matter. I think that if you ate meat or fish occasionally during a primarily vegetarian diet, you would have a model Islamic diet. Something to envy rather than a concern. 

[Abdilhayy]

6 hours ago, Ashvazdanghe said:

Salam certainly it's not true  which it doesn't invalidate your Salah anyway it causes depriving from total benefiting from your Salah .

What is the ruling regarding eating harām (forbidden) food?

Although such acts may take place erroneously, based on many narratives passed on to us from the Ahlulbayt ((عليه السلام).), they leave their negative impacts on man's life causing him at times to be deprived of success. Therefore, one must be careful to eat halal food and with this care and concern he should speed up his move in the path prescribed by God.

 

Detailed Answer

 

 

Certainly, eating harām food will leave its natural and implicit effects on the sinner's soul and body. The scholars of ethics have spoken at length about the explicit and implicit impacts of eating such types of food and they are of the view that although one is not punished for eating the food, he will not escape its effects. That is, he will be deprived of some chances of success and it will affect his soul in an unignorable way. That is why, it has been greatly emphasized in the Quran that one should be careful about the food he eats.

https://www.islamquest.net/en/archive/fa1431

Regarding the milk hadith, can we drink milk from kafrs?

[Abdilhayy]

11 hours ago, Guest Hello said:

You could eat seafood if you don't mind it. It's even healthier. And eggs are nutritionally similar to meat. Dairy is also great if you're not lactose intolerant. 

Doesn't ahadith say not to eat fish from kafirs unless you saw them catch it? (Someone correct me if I'm mistaken)

[Guest Salam]

18 hours ago, Baba Piruz said:

Doesn't ahadith say not to eat fish from kafirs unless you saw them catch it? (Someone correct me if I'm mistaken)

I've never heard of anything like that. There is a difference between spiritual and physical impurity. If meat is not slaughtered in our way, it is not halal to eat. Or if you had some halal meat and put blood on it, then it becomes haram to eat due through the avenue of physical impurity. Removing a spiritual impurity is one thing, but removing a physical one is very easy and simple. All you have to do is wash the najasa (impurity) away with water.

This is relevant because there is no process to make seafood halal, it's already halal without you having to do anything. The fish that a kafir catches is just as halal as the one a Muslim catches. The only issue comes from the physical impurity from them touching it with wet hands, and that can be resolved in 3 seconds by rinsing it in the sink.

But I don't think this is an issue anyway since you are in a Christian region and can fairly assume that no kafir hands will handle your fish. Even in a non-Abrahamic country you can assume they wear gloves. In order to make life easier, we are allowed to have the benefit of the doubt when we don't have 100% certainty that something is najis or haram to eat. Please give this a read: https://www.sistani.org/english/book/46/2029/

 

Because Allah is Merciful, He doesn't want to complicate or make our lives difficult. So if you find yourself in a strange position like this, you have misunderstood something or there's an easy solution that you're not aware of.

[Ashvazdanghe]

On 4/4/2023 at 7:21 AM, Baba Piruz said:

Regarding the milk hadith, can we drink milk from kafrs?

Salam you can drink milk of any halal meat animal as cow & goat from anyone who offers you even from Kafirs if they have not touched milk which you can drink milk from people of book even if they have touched it .

Video: Imam Musa al-Sadr and Christian Ice Cream Seller

http://ijtihadnet.com/imam-musa-al-sadr-and-christian-ice-cream-seller-video/

Ali Teymoori January 16, 2019    Fiqh & Socitey, Media, Sociability & Relations, Undefined, Videos Leave a comment 1,364 Views
Although he was a Christian, he was a fan and follower of Imam Musa Sadr; and the traditions form Prophet Muhammad and Imam Ali were always hung on the walls of his house.

Uncle Antiba was a Christian ice cream seller in the city of Sour in Lebanon who had lived among for many years Muslims. Although he was a Christian, he was a fan and follower of Imam Musa Sadr; and the traditions form Prophet Muhammad and Imam Ali were always hung on the walls of his house. He said that I had an ice cream shop for fifty years. One of the Shia brothers used to compete with me in business, but never succeeded to catch up with my business’s success. I mean I was better than him. Thus, he tried to make this whole business a religious issue so that his business might improve. I repeatedly told him to stop this, but he did not listen to me. I said to myself that I have no one for support other than Sayyid Musa, so I went up to him and explained what had happened. I had always heard that Islam is essentially integrated with justice, and he said: “yes, my dear brother.”I said “what should I do? I have a wife and children, I want to keep my work. This gentleman can’t catch up with me in his work, and he has launched a religious dispute and people have cut off from me. Sayyid Musa said “there will no problem; get up and go to your shop. I will come to yours and have ice cream there; and this shall silence him.”And this same thing happened. He was silent after this and did not say anything else. People also saw that Sayyid Musa would have ice cream in my shop. May Allah bless and keep him healthy; when he is not here with us, we are like orphans.

http://ijtihadnet.com/imam-musa-al-sadr-and-christian-ice-cream-seller-video/

[Ashvazdanghe]

20 hours ago, Baba Piruz said:

Doesn't ahadith say not to eat fish from kafirs unless you saw them catch it? (Someone correct me if I'm mistaken)

Salam there is no explicit hadith about it anyway there is  some fatwas about it which have been driven from hadiths about it.

According to Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi

 

Buying fish from the Muslim market [rules of fishing]
Question: Is it halal if fish is bought from the Muslim market?
Answer: If a fish is taken from a Muslim market or from a Muslim, it is halal, even if it is not known whether it was taken alive from the water or not, and there is no need to search, but if it is taken from an unbeliever and it is not known that the fish was taken alive. It is haram whether it is caught alive or not.

Quote

Catching fish by a non-Muslim fisherman [rules of catching fish]
Question: Is it necessary to be a Muslim to catch fish?
Answer: The fisher does not have to be a Muslim and mention the name of Allah while catching the fish, but it must be known that he caught it alive from the water or [fish] died after falling into  trap(net).

https://makarem.ir/main.aspx?typeinfo=21&lid=0&catid=46760

Ruling on fish caught by non-Muslims

According to the opinion of Ayatollah Sistani

Ruling 179- The big fishing vessels cast their nets and catch several tons of fish at once and sell them in the markets, and it has become known that in the new fishing method, they take the fish out of the water alive and even the company itself In order to maintain health, throw back the dead fish   into the sea. Can we buy fish from places where the seller is a non-Muslim, or from other places where the seller and supplier are Muslim, but they are not concerned with Sharia issues? Should we buy fish? Knowing that it is not certain whether the fish in front of our eyes were pulled out of the water alive or not, and obtaining information through a reliable witness is very difficult, but not practical.
And is there a solution here for Muslims, who find it difficult to verify  tazkia of chicken, beef, and sheep meat, so they resort to fish meat?

Answer - There is no problem in buying such fish from a Muslim or non-Muslim seller, as well as if it is confirmed that they were caught in the same way as mentioned in the question and that they are scaly fish, then their meat is halal.

Source: Hedana website taken from the book of jurisprudence for Westerners, Grand Ayatollah Sistani.

https://hadana.ir/حکم-ماهی-صید-شده-توسط-غیر-مسلمان/

Ruling 2634. It is not necessary for a fisherman to be a Muslim [in order for the fish to be lawful to eat], nor does he have to mention the name of Allah at the time of catching the fish. However, a Muslim must witness – or attain confidence (iṭmiʾnān) in some other way – that the fish was caught alive in the water or that it died in the net in the water.

Ruling 2635. If it is not known whether a dead fish was caught alive or dead in the water, in the event that it is in the hands of a Muslim who has disposal over it, which is proof of it being lawful to eat – for example, he sells or buys it – it is lawful. However, if the fish is in the hands of a disbeliever, then even if he says, ‘I caught it alive’, it is unlawful to eat unless one is confident that he caught it alive in the water or that it died in the net in the water.

https://www.sistani.org/english/book/48/2358/