Several Muslim non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have urged the religious authorities in Malaysia to take cognisance of the invaluable heritage of medical fatwas that is already available around the globe when deciding what is halal and haram, rather than attempting to reinvent it.

This follows the recent concern over the porcine conundrum in chocolates, only for the authorities to revoke the ban later.

The Federation of Islamic Medical Associations Advisory Council, Ikram Health and Muslim Professional Forum in a statement noted the concern but said the issue of use of substances of porcine origin in food and medicine has been comprehensively dealt with by the European Council of Fatwa Research (ECFR).

“ECFR has dealt with this when deliberating on the permissibility of the use of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) which is manufactured using porcine-based trypsin. This was published in the 11th Session of the ECFR held from July 1 to 7 in Stockholm in 2003.

 

“It argued that what God forbids is the partaking of pork, and trypsin has nothing to do with pork. Even if we admit that trypsin is forbidden, the amount used in preparing the vaccine is negligible, if one applies the rule that ‘when the amount of water exceed 2 qillas (343 litres)’ impurities no longer affect it.”

Furthermore, supposing trypsin is unclean, it is thoroughly filtered until it leaves no traces whatsoever in the final vaccine and in case the three arguments forwarded are still insufficient, the haram (forbidden) is made permissible in cases of necessity, the statement reads.

The three Muslim NGOs said in ECFR’s concluding remarks, Muslim leaders and officials are urged not to be too strict in such matters that are open to considered opinion and that bring considerable benefits to Muslim children, as long as these matters involve no conflict with any definite text.

“Hence, we urge the religious authorities to take cognisance of the invaluable heritage of medical fatwas that is before us and not attempt to reinvent the wheel. They should instead incorporate these shari’ah compliant best clinical practices into the corpus of our nation’s jurisprudence in medicine,” the three Muslim NGOs said in their joint statement.

“Such is the latitude of rationale and magnanimity of our religious scholars in addressing the bigger picture of child health, child survival strategies and the advocacy of life saving vaccines,” they said.

They also agreed that gelatin which had undergone a bio-transformation process from another substance which is judicially impure (pig) into pure substances and changes substances that are prohibited into lawful and permissible and can be consumed.

Such views on gelatine are also shared by renowned scholar Yusuf Al Qardhawi and also former Perlis mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin. Yusuf is also the ECFR’s chairperson.