I have known for quite a while now that a lot of food in the store here in Norway, has non-halal ingredients from animals that aren’t halal like pig fat or fat from animals that aren`t slaughtered the muslim way, which makes them haram for us muslims to eat. But I had no idea that these kinds of non-halal ingredients are in so many different kinds of food. Until some websites opened my eyes. (www.ikkehalal.com) (www.alwayshalal.wordpress.com) You can find non-halal ingredients in chewing gum, cake ( haven`t found one cake I can eat that is halal in the store), vitamins, toothpaste, ice cream, chocolate and so much more. This is such a big issue for us muslims because if one eats something non-halal that persons prayers will not be answered for 40 days. I`m sure if all the muslims gets knowledge about which kind of products are non-halal and starts boycotting these products , the company’s will for sure see that they will lose a great deal of money and see a decrease in their sales. The more the awareness grows around this the more decrease they will see. We muslims can make a difference, Inshallah, Ameen summa ameen.
It is not only about eating halal but everything we do should be halal, halal income, would give us halal clothing and our prayer will be answered. I remember a hadis were our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said that one man was hit by a calamity. So he prayed. But how could his prayers be answered when his clothes were from haram income and he had eaten non-halal-food. This is a very important subject after all what will we teach the next generation if we don`t teach them what kind of food they should stay away from and what kind of food they can eat. We muslim customers do have a lot of power if we only use it properly. If we every time we want to eat out ask if the meat is guaranteed halal and when we buy different kinds of food from norwegian stores, ask the company if they have a halal alternative, and not buy it if they don`t have that. Believe me, if each and every muslim would do this then the company’s would understand that there is a demand for halal products and they would make sure that they import that, because they will see that they can achieve a profit from it.
The sad part is that even if we are aware of this non-halal-food-issue most of us don`t do use their customer-power and so the company`s only get what they know will be bought by the people. When awareness grows then our actions should change accordingly if we want our prayers to be answered. I hope and pray that muslims take this seriously as there is their own gain in it, not only for now but also for their next generations.
Roshnii179 