Zaid Ibrahim says;
Halal on the Plate, Halal in the Nation
Recently, I walked into a restaurant and asked for a fish dish. The waitress politely told me the place was not halal. I replied, “I only want fish.” Yet she insisted ; no halal certification, so very sorry no service.
I could not help but reflect: before JAKIM turned halal certification into a billion-ringgit industry, Muslims in this country already knew what was halal. My father, my grandfather, and generations before them decided for themselves what was permissible to eat. We trusted our knowledge, our community, and our conscience.
Today, however, Muslims are told that unless a government body issues a stamp, the food is questionable. Halal has become less about faith and more about bureaucracy.
This raises a deeper question: if JAKIM decides what is halal to eat, can it also tell us where it is halal to sleep? Is the country itself halal when our environment is dirty, when illegal activities are rampant, and when abuse of power /corruption corrodes every institution?
Halal, in its truest sense, is not just about food. It is about purity, justice, honesty, and fairness. The Qur’an and Hadith are clear ; corruption is haram, cheating the poor is haram, exploiting the weak is haram. Yet these thrive openly while we quarrel over kitchen stamps.
We are fastidious about the slaughterhouse but turn a blind eye to the marketplace of politics where wealth and power are traded without shame. We police restaurants for signs of halal certification, yet ignore the filth in our cities, the leakages in our budgets, and the abuse of trust by those in authority.
This is the contradiction that weakens us as a people. We are told what we can or cannot eat, but no one dares to certify whether our governance, our contracts, and our institutions are halal
If JAKIM wishes to be the moral guardian of the nation, then let it expand its mission. Let it declare that corruption is haram, that abuse of office is haram, that siphoning billions meant for the rakyat is haram. Let halal certification apply not only to food, but to governance itself.
Until then, Muslims should remember: halal is first a matter of conscience.
P/S:
Mr. Zaid, then why not you include to say NEP with every discrimination activities in it are also HARAM !
It's still like only yesterday, pain, sorrow and missing you overhelming the heart and mind. Only those who have experienced it would understand and know why it's can't be described with words.
May Almighty graces you with eternal rest in peace and the comfort in His Heaven. And His perpetual divine light shine upon your resting soul. Amen.
22 August 2025, (Friday). 2 days prior to the 6 months anniversary
