Question 265 - The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 3

Ahmed al-Hasan Response:

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, the Imams and the Mahdis, and grant them abundant peace. (First: Does the pilgrimage suffice for a person who performed it before entering the blessed Yamani call?) Answer: If his pilgrimage accorded with what was narrated from the Imams (a), it suffices; otherwise it does not. (Second: What is the expiation for breaking a covenant?) Answer: The expiation for violating a covenant is a choice between freeing a slave, fasting for two consecutive months, or feeding sixty poor people. (Third: In Friday prayer, is a person who has not entered the Yamani call counted, knowing that he does not oppose this call-that is, counted toward the required number of individuals?) Answer: None but a believer is counted. (Fourth: What is the ruling concerning one who forgetfully omits the six takbirs after the opening takbir in an obligatory or supererogatory prayer?) Answer: If he remembers before bowing-that is, notices that he did not perform the takbirs before he bows, such as noticing during the recitation-he performs them and what follows them. If he remembers after bowing, he continues his prayer and nothing is required of him. (Fifth: Can one rely upon writing on certain food packages? Sometimes they say ‘halal gelatin,’ sometimes ‘animal gelatin,’ sometimes ‘vegetable gelatin,’ and sometimes ‘thickening agents’ without stating what these substances are, knowing that these food packages are present in non-Muslim markets.) Answer: One may rely upon what is written if there are indications that bring reassurance and confidence in what is written. It suffices to be reassured that the producer has no particular interest or benefit in lying about the contents of his product. As for writing that is vague-‘thickening agents,’ ‘preservatives’-it must be inquired into and identified. Regarding animal products for which proper slaughter is required for eating or use in particular applications, they are not necessarily properly slaughtered and lawful because they were produced in a Muslim country, nor are they necessarily not properly slaughtered and unlawful because they were produced in a non-Muslim country. They are lawful if proper slaughter was performed in the religiously prescribed manner, whether in a Muslim or non-Muslim country, and unlawful if not properly slaughtered in the correct religious manner, whether in a Muslim or non-Muslim country. I will give an example from reality: an animal in honored Mecca slaughtered by a person who sets himself in enmity against the family of Muhammad (a) is not considered properly slaughtered; an animal in France slaughtered by a Muslim who does not set himself in enmity against the family of Muhammad (a) is considered properly slaughtered; a chicken whose neck is cut by machinery in Iran is not considered properly slaughtered; and a chicken slaughtered by hand in China by a Muslim who does not set himself in enmity against the family of Muhammad (a) is considered properly slaughtered. Ahmed Alhasan