Mufti RT: “The Committee on Halal Standards DUM RT from the first days of its work put at the forefront the interests of the final consumers, not the producers”
The mufti of the Republic of Tatarstan, Kamil hazrat Samigullin, commented on the situation with the release of pork meat products with a halal advertising sticker on his official Instagram account @kamilhazrat.
“A few days ago, the Muslim Ummah Republic of Tatarstan was discouraged by the blatant case when Chelny-Meat company, in honor of the World Cup, pasted an advertising sticker with the inscription“ halal ”on its pork meat products, – noted in the post. – This is a real crime over the feelings of believers, which casts a shadow of doubt on the whole halal industry.
The trust factor is one of the main principles of the production of halal products. The trust of customers is earned for a long time, slowly and scrupulously, but it is very easy to lose it. Recall, a case known to all, when traces of pork DNA were found in sausage. Thus, it is safe to say that the atmosphere of distrust arising from these scandals negatively affects the development of the halal sector of the economy and the Muslim business in general.
In the collection of Hadith Musnad by Imam Abu Hanifa (Rakhmatullahi Aleiha), the following words of the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) are cited: have no clear idea. ”
Stopping on this Hadith, I would like to place particular emphasis on its last part, namely the words “regarding which many people have no clear idea”. It is worth noting that, despite the great achievements that Muslims of Tatarstan achieved after the collapse of the USSR, still a significant part of the population is not well aware of the distinctive features of halal products. For example, many ethnic Muslims sincerely believe that halal meat is a product that is harvested in the Tatar village or that halal is all that is not pork.
But even among observant Muslims, there can often be many questions regarding whether a product is allowed or denied. This is due to the fact that in the modern food industry various components from animal fats are widely used, as well as products with a content of forbidden food additives (dyes, preservatives, emulsifiers, etc.). It is very difficult for an average person to understand this information, and because of this, various certification centers were created in due time, responsible for checking food products and services complying with the canons of Sharia. This decision made life easier for ordinary Muslims and delegated the issue of product inspection into the hands of professional experts.
However, a reasonable question arises here, which certification authority can you trust? For example, some Russian centers consist of only 2-3 people. Now let us ask ourselves how a couple people can control the production process at dozens of enterprises located in different regions of the Russian Federation ?! Some, Halal-product certification centers issue their certificates, even without leaving the factory! But is it possible in this way to guarantee the compliance of products with Islamic requirements? Of course not.
Praise be to Allah, the Halal Standard Committee of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Republic of Tatarstan avoided all these shortcomings: there are dozens of people working in the organization who conduct ongoing monitoring of enterprises and conduct unscheduled inspections, all activities are carried out in accordance with the Hanafi madhhab ), the internal Sharia department functions, and the most important ones are headed by sincere, God-fearing and principled Muslims, for whom the production control is halal Oduction is not a business, but a ministry to the mind.
Since March 2012, Marat Nizamov has been the chairman of the Halal Standard Committee of the DUM RT, who from the first days of his work put the interests of the final consumers, rather than producers, at the forefront. Due to the principled and tough position of the Committee, many enterprises have lost their halal certificate. It is worth noting that the revocation of the certificate was made not because of non-payment of payments, but because the committee could no longer guarantee the company’s full compliance with the norms of halal. Thanks to such scrupulous work, the Muslims of Tatarstan, seeing the logo of the Halal Committee of the DUM RT, are sure that not only halal is written on the product, but the products are really halal.
I very much appreciate the negative public reaction to the fact that Chelny-Meat, without the knowledge and consent of the Halal Committee, DUM RT has pasted on its meat products an advertising sticker with the word “Halal”. This is vivid evidence that people are worried about their religion, because eating what is permitted is a reason for accepting prayer and worship, just as consuming the forbidden is an obstacle to accepting a prayer for 40 days.
Having quickly understood the situation, the specialists of the Committee