HARA'M AND HALAL IN A NON-MUSLIM COUNTRY

A person once asked a buzurg about hara'm (impermissible) and halal (permissible) foods in a non-Muslim country. The buzurg said, "Until you can absolutely confirm that the meat is halal, the meat should be considered hara'm.  The other edible items should be considered halal unless you are certain for some reason that they are hara'm." He then further said, "Do not get too preoccupied with investigating every food item being halal or hara'm unless there is a reason for suspecting that it might be hara'm.

On another occasion the buzurg told this story about the same topic, "Once Hazrat Omer Farooq RAA went out of the city with another companion. When they got thirsty they went to a pond. A local came towards them. Hazrat Omer's RAA companion asked him, "Do wild animals come to this pond?" Before he could answer Hazrat Omer RAA raised his hand and told him not to answer that question. The buzurg said that what it meant was that where there are no foot marks or any other signs of wild animals visiting a body of water the water should be considered clean and a person should not get into unnecessary investigation. One should adopt the same attitude about other edible items besides meat that they should be considered halal unless there is some strong reason to suspect that they may not be.