Gelatin

[Nura]

Ramadan Mubarak dear brother Joseph

I was reading up on the permissibility of gelatin recently and I came across two opinions from islamic scholars:

1. when bones from halal/ haram (pigs or cows/goats not slaughtered according to islamic law) are boiled to make gelatin, the chemical composition changes and so the new substance should have a new ruling. i.e gelatin from pigs is also halal.

the logic they gave is, grapes are halal but wine is not, but again vinegar from wine is halal.
so halal substances can come from haram substances.

2. I read another article refuting the above logic for permissibility of gelatin, saying that no matter what, gelatin derived from non-halal animals is haram.

so brother can u help me please. I am very confused and where I live many food products contain gelatin. Do you think I should avoid eating things that contain gelatin?

thank you in advance...

[Saba]

Salaaam Nura, I note  a general response given to you already here: http://quransmessage.com/forum/index.php?topic=825.0 which I found interesting. If you don't mind me responding and in the spirit of that response, I personally think matters such as this are 'grey areas' and personally best to err on the side of caution. My two cents...thanks 

[Nura]

salam to u too saba ..
not at all any perspective is appreciated.. yes a general response was given to me, and after that I read up on it and  became very confused because of the logical reasoning that were given for the permissibility of gelatin..I just wanted to know other people's perspectives as well. I just wanted to be sure I wasn't making haram stuff halal or vice versa for myself.. thank you so much for your input ...

[Truth Seeker]

Salaam,

If the source product is haram, then any bi products would be questionable. This is especially if we are talking about animals like pigs or other animals that are not slaughtered according to Islam.

Wine is different from pigs. The Quran says that there is good and bad from wine but no such comment is made for the pig. It is simply forbidden.

I would try to stick with the spirit of the directives that God gives us. If there is doubt then it is best to leave it.

We are lucky nowadays that we have so much consumer choice and we can see from the labelling if products contain wine, gelatine etc.

If it does then there will almost always be an alternative product for us that is compliant with our faith.

[Nura]

salam truth seeker,

thank you for your input on the matter . Yes, it makes sense to avoid it.I did not think about it the way you put it, wine having some good in it and pig being declared haram outright!

[Joseph Islam]

JazakAllah Khair sisters. You all share great wisdom.