Beef (ritually slaughtered)
Dhabiha: say “Bismillah”, cut swiftly, let the blood drain.
Food guide
Halal or haram?
A complete guide to checking whether a food, a drink or an additive (E100 to E1510) is lawful in Islam. Clear classification, Quranic and prophetic sources, and where the 4 madhhabs agree.
Halal (lawful)
Permitted to consume.
Doubtful (mushbooh)
Depends on the source — check it.
Haram (forbidden)
Forbidden to consume.
Pork and everything from it
Quran 2:173, 5:3, 6:145. Explicitly forbidden — flesh, fat, gelatine, bone.
Lamb / mutton (halal)
If ritually slaughtered.
Chicken (halal)
If ritually slaughtered.
Fish and seafood
All lawful according to the majority (Shafi‘i, Maliki, Hanbali). The Hanafis restrict it to scaled fish.
Crustaceans (prawns, lobster)
Halal for the majority. Some Hanafis hold back.
Blood
Quran 5:3 — specifically blood that is poured out.
An animal found dead (carrion)
Quran 5:3.
Wine / beer / all alcohol
Quran 5:90. Prohibited through a gradual revelation.
Kombucha
Variable alcohol content, generally under 0.5%. Some scholars permit it where intoxication is impossible.
Vinegar (even from wine)
Hadith: turning into vinegar purifies it (Muslim 2004).
Tea / coffee
With no haram additions.
Lard (pork fat)
Used in some industrial pastries.
Olive / sunflower / rapeseed oil
Any pure vegetable oil.
Butter / margarine
Check that the margarine contains no doubtful animal fat.
Sweets made with pork gelatine
Gummy bears, dragées, marshmallows — read the list. Prefer halal or vegetarian versions (pectin, agar).
Plain dark or milk chocolate
With no alcohol and no doubtful additives.
Egg-based ice cream
Check that the emulsifiers (E471, E472) are plant-based.
Natural vanilla (pod)
Alcohol-based vanilla extract
Contains ethanol (40%+). Some permit it where it cooks off or the traces stay under the threshold.
Alcohol-based perfumes
Hanbalis and Hanafis hold non-drinkable alcohol lawful for external use. Shafi‘is and Malikis are more cautious.
Soaps and shampoos containing tallow
Chemically transformed animal tallow is held pure by many scholars (istihala).
The 4 food prohibitions stated explicitly in the Quran
Allah says: “He has only forbidden to you dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allah.” (Quran 2:173, 5:3, 16:115)
- 1Carrion — animals that died without ritual slaughter.
- 2Blood poured out at slaughter (blood remaining in the meat is tolerated).
- 3Pork and everything derived from it (flesh, fat, gelatine, bone, bristle, blood).
- 4Animals sacrificed to other than Allah (idolatry, voodoo, non-monotheistic rites).
Ritual slaughter (dhabiha)
Four conditions make a land animal halal:
- • The name of Allah invoked (“Bismillah, Allahu Akbar”) by the one slaughtering
- • The one slaughtering must be Muslim, Jewish or Christian (People of the Book, Quran 5:5)
- • A swift cut through the windpipe, the gullet and both carotids (at least 3 of the 4)
- • The animal alive at the moment of slaughter (no lethal stunning)
The principle of caution
“Whoever avoids what is doubtful keeps his religion and his honour intact. Whoever falls into what is doubtful falls into the forbidden.”
— Sahih al-Bukhari 52, Muslim 1599 (the hadith of the doubtful)
Faced with a doubtful product (mushbooh), the rule is to abstain out of caution. But Allah is All-Forgiving: “Whoever is forced by necessity, neither desiring it nor transgressing, there is no sin upon him. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.” (Quran 2:173).
Scan a product in one tap with BasiraLife
The Nutrition module lets you scan a barcode or an ingredient list, flags doubtful additives automatically and suggests halal alternatives. Certified halal recipes with automatic substitutions.
Try the halal scan