Halal and haram meaning: the words, the rulings and how questions are assessed

What does halal mean?

Al-Jurjani (d. 816 AH, a year in the Islamic Hijri calendar), in his dictionary of technical terms al-Ta'rifat, gives two definitions one after the other: halal is everything a person is not punished for using, and it is what the Sharia has left free to do. He adds that the word is taken from hall, "opening" 3.

Ibn Faris (d. 395 AH), in his dictionary of word roots Mu'jam Maqayis al-Lughah, traces every branch of the root h-l-l back to opening something. Halal, he says, is the opposite of haram, as if from halaltu al-shay', "I released the thing", when you made it permitted and gave it room 4.

Neither definition names a food or a product. Permitted is also not the same as required or recommended: those are separate categories, set out below.

What does haram mean in Arabic and in Islam?

In Arabic, Ibn Faris writes that the letters ha', ra' and mim are one root meaning prevention and strictness, and that al-haram is the opposite of al-halal 5.

In Islamic law, al-Mahalli (d. 864 AH), a Shafi'i scholar, explains in his commentary on al-Juwayni's al-Waraqat that the prohibited (al-mahzur) means al-hurmah (prohibition). He defines it as what a person is rewarded for leaving, in obedience, and punished for doing 6. He adds that it is enough for the definition if the punishment exists for one wrongdoer while others are pardoned (the editor marks this clause as missing from two manuscripts; it also appears under wajib).

A definition of a category is not a prediction about any one person.

What does Masjid al-Haram mean?

Al-Baqarah 2:144 names al-masjid al-haram as the direction to turn to in prayer. This site's English reads: "So turn your face toward the Inviolable Place of Worship".

The name uses the same root as haram, and the translation renders it "inviolable", not "forbidden". Ibn Faris explains a related use of the root: the two Harams, Makkah and Madinah, are so called for their sanctity, because it is forbidden to commit a wrong in them or to shelter someone who does 5.

Is everything either halal or haram?

No. Works on usul al-fiqh (the principles of fiqh, Islamic jurisprudence) sort rulings into more than two kinds, and the works of different schools do not use the terms in exactly the same way.

Al-Juwayni (d. 478 AH), a Shafi'i scholar, lists seven rulings in al-Waraqat. Five of them sort acts by reward and punishment 7.

Hanafi usul, as al-Sarakhsi (d. 483 AH) sets it out in his Usul, splits the required in two. A fard is established by evidence that gives certain knowledge; a wajib by evidence that obliges action but, because of a doubt in its route, not certain knowledge. Both are binding, he writes, but the fard has the stronger effect 8.

On makruh, al-Marghinani (d. 593 AH) opens the book on karahiyah in the Hanafi al-Hidayah by reporting that Muhammad al-Shaybani is narrated as saying every makruh is haram, though he did not call it haram because he found no decisive text for it, and that Abu Hanifah and Abu Yusuf held it to be nearer to haram 9.

So makruh is described differently in al-Juwayni's list and in this Hanafi passage. When a teacher or a fatwa uses one of these terms, it helps to know which school and which book it comes from.

What are doubtful matters?

Al-Nu'man ibn Bashir, may Allah be pleased with him, said he heard the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, say that the halal is clear and the haram is clear, and between them are doubtful matters that many people do not know (Sahih al-Bukhari 52, graded sahih).

1AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 52

The report goes on: whoever guards against the doubtful matters keeps his religion and his honour clear, and whoever falls into them is like a shepherd grazing around a protected pasture, about to fall into it. Every king has such a pasture, and Allah's pasture on His earth is what He has made prohibited. It ends with the heart: a lump of flesh in the body which, when sound, leaves the whole body sound, and when corrupt, the whole body corrupt.

Sahih Muslim 1599a, also graded sahih, carries the same report in a different wording. There, whoever falls into the doubtful matters "falls into the haram".

2AuthenticSahih Muslim 1599a

Neither wording names a food, a product or an ingredient, and neither says who settles a doubtful case. Bukhari's wording does not say that something you have not yet checked is haram; Muslim's adds that whoever falls into the doubtful matters falls into the haram. They separate what is clear from what is unclear to many people. How one unclear case is settled is a question for a scholar.

Is everything halal unless proven haram?

The two classical works cited here give different answers.

Al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH), in his Shafi'i al-Ashbah wa-l-Naza'ir, states it as a maxim: the default in things is permissibility until evidence shows prohibition. He calls this "our school", and says that according to Abu Hanifah the default is prohibition until evidence shows permissibility. The difference, he writes, shows in matters the texts are silent about 10.

Ibn Nujaym (d. 970 AH), in his Hanafi al-Ashbah wa-l-Naza'ir, puts the same point as a question, and notes that it is the Shafi'is who attribute the prohibition view to Abu Hanifah. He then quotes his own commentary on al-Manar, which gives other answers: that things are originally permitted according to some Hanafis, among them al-Karkhi, and that "our companions" (the Hanafi scholars) held the default to be suspension (tawaqquf) 11.

So "everything is halal unless proven haram" is a maxim al-Suyuti gives for the Shafi'i school, and Ibn Nujaym's Hanafi book records more than one answer. Neither book's maxim is a verdict on any product.

Who decides what is halal and haram?

An-Nahl 16:116 warns against calling things lawful and forbidden by one's own words, and so inventing a lie against Allah.

The verse is about inventing such labels. It does not list what is lawful or forbidden.

On how a qualified answer is given, Ibn al-Salah (d. 643 AH) writes in Adab al-Mufti wa-l-Mustafti that when a question has distinctions in it, the answer must not be given without qualification, which he calls an error 12. The mufti (the scholar giving the answer) may ask the questioner for the details and write the question down before answering, which he calls better and safer. Or he may answer only the case he knows applies, but say "this is if such and such".

How do you ask about a halal or haram question?

The five steps below are our own checklist for preparing a question for a scholar you trust. They follow Ibn al-Salah's point that the details of a case shape its answer. They are not a way to reach a ruling yourself.

1. Name the actual thing. The action, transaction, ingredient or product, not a broad category.
2. Give the facts that could change the answer. For a product, the label as printed and where it was bought; for an agreement or an action, the circumstances.
3. Separate what you know from what you were told. Say what you checked yourself and what still needs checking.
4. Say which school you follow, if you follow one. The terms and defaults on this page differ between works of different schools.
5. Keep the conditions with the answer. If the answer is "this is if such and such", pass it on with its conditions, not as a general verdict.

An everyday picture (ours): "is this dessert halal?" asked across a shop counter and the same question asked with the tub's printed ingredient list in hand are different questions. The second gives the person answering the facts. This page gives no verdict on either.

Is halal only about food?

No. Al-Jurjani's first definition speaks of "everything" a person is not punished for using, and his second of what the Sharia leaves free to do, with no mention of food 3.

The Quran also speaks of food directly. Al-Baqarah 2:168 says: "O mankind! Eat of that which is lawful and wholesome in the earth". Al-Maidah 5:3 also lists foods that are forbidden. Those foods are covered on their own pages.

Questions about particular foods, ingredients and products have their own pages, starting with How to check a product is halal in the UK (coming soon).