A Bus Journey, and the Line No One May Cross

There is the account of a bus journey among a party that included some of his own teachers, travelling between cities, that stopped in the middle of nowhere at a roadside takeaway — a "Lumberger," as the shop's own sign styled it, and not a hamburger — where the whole party ate. Asked what this place was, and what everyone thought they were doing eating there — met only with "we're eating," stating the obvious — the question was then put properly to the teachers themselves, and the answer that came back was simple: say Bismillah, and eat; it is ḥalāl. There are, indeed, situations of that kind where the right course is always to say Bismillah and eat. But there are other times — when a person is entirely certain, a hundred per cent certain, that something is ḥarām — where saying Bismillah over it anyway carries a very different consequence, because doing so changes the status of ḥarām into ḥalāl, and the only being in the universe with the authority to do that is Allah (swt), and, with His permission, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). Taking that authority into one's own hands, and pronouncing something Allah (swt) has already made ḥarām to be ḥalāl, makes a person a kāfir instantly — a disbeliever, leaving Islam on the spot.

That is a wholly different case from saying, "I do not know; I was told this is ḥalāl, and I am taking the person's word for it — if it turns out to be ḥarām, I would never have touched it." That person is not sinning. It is different again from deliberately eating something known to be ḥarām while admitting as much — a sin, certainly, but the person remains a Muslim. It is the third case — pronouncing Bismillah over what is known with certainty to be ḥarām, thereby claiming to bless it — that is unforgivable in a different way, since ḥarām food cannot be blessed; Allah (swt) has already made it what it is. It is no wonder, then, that so many among today's youth, unaware of this distinction, suffer trouble in the heart, no wonder they cannot master the nafs al-ammārah — every ḥarām morsel that enters the body touches the spirit, the rūḥ, in ways not always noticed. As the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is reported to have said, a single luqmah, a single morsel of ḥarām food, is enough to render the reward of prayer — including voluntary prayer, nawāfil — and supplication useless for forty days: no ḥasanāt gained at all. This is how important the matter is. The first step of a practising Muslim's life is to make certain that the khubz, the bread, the food that is eaten, comes from a source that is pure and ḥalāl.