Not Investigating a Host, Muslim or Otherwise

A further set of miscellaneous questions follows. The same rule against asking holds even inside a Muslim's own house: even where the host is known not to be a particularly practising Muslim — Muslim nonetheless, a muḥajjaba wife and all — and he offers meat, no pork having been given, it is not permitted to ask him whether the meat is ḥalāl or where he got it from — this would be ghayr adabī, contrary to good manners, according to Islam. If a wrong invocation is actually witnessed, the meat is kept away from as ḥarām; otherwise, the general rule for the public is that no investigation is required, whether the source is Ahl al-Kitāb or a fellow Muslim.

This extends to food additives. Here the position is no different — unless a person happens to be a chemical engineer, a food scientist, who genuinely knows what goes into a given product, sharīʿah does not require them to find out. Where such a person does investigate and discovers something ḥarām, it becomes ḥarām to them personally, though it remains ḥalāl to the general public, because ease is always to be preferred over hardship — this is a rule of the sharīʿah. The fatwā for the general public is that the food of Ahl al-Kitāb may be eaten without investigation; a muttaqī who wishes to find out more, and has the means to do so, is free to go and find out for himself.