wow levite..im going to attempt to answer all your questions.. but i agree, there's so much many of us would wantt o ask that i think it would be prudent to set up your own "Ask a Jew..." thread. i think it would be quite informative and would break down many of the stereotypes. i know i could learn a thing or two.
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That's quite interesting! I knew that halal slaughter required something akin to what we Jews would call making a blessing beforehand (i.e., the name of God is mentioned in reference to being the Creator, etc.), and I knew that Muslims were also forbidden pork, but I did not know that Islam also forbids the eating of blood, and that the slaughter is supposed to be quick and as painless as possible. Those things are also true of kosher slaughter (sh'khitah), although it sounds like the process of making meat kosher is a bit more elaborate, as we must not only drain the animal of blood in the usual way, but also salt the meat using rock salt, forcing it to drain on a slanted board, then rinsing off the salt with water, and repeating the whole process three times.
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Though many slaughter practices are similar, islamic halal practices are no where near as elaborate or strict as jewish practices. The "kalima" (translated means the "word") needs to be said before an animal is slaughtered.
The word that is to be pronounced is "Bismillah" (in the name of God - "Bism" meaning "in the name of.." llah" coming from the word "Illah" or "Allah" meaning "The Lord", hence making up the prounouncement. There are additions to the pronouncement, but the bare minimum is "Bismillah".
The eating or drinking of Blood is forbidden in the same quranic verse that pork is prohibited
Quran 2.173 "He hath only forbidden you dead meat, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and that on which any other name hath been invoked besides that of Allah. But if one is forced by necessity, without wilful disobedience, nor transgressing due limits,- then is he guiltless. For Allah is Oft-forgiving Most Merciful."
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Question: can anyone who has been told those rules slaughter an animal and have the resulting meat be halal? I ask because with us Jews, a man must be specially trained to be a shokhet (ritual slaughterer): if an untrained person who slaughters an animal, we are permitted to call the meat kosher if we have to, but generally speaking, it is not done, and the untrained are not permitted to slaughter.
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As long as the proper steps are taken to ensure that the meat is halal and slaughtered in the proper manner, then anyone can slaughter an animal. This includes the "people of the book" (ie. jews and christians). There are however, differing opinions on whether a person who is not a jew or christian can slaughter and have it deemed halal even though he/she may pronounce the "kalima".
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Oh, that reminds me: D, do Muslims have rules about halal eating? I mean, for us Jews, kosher meat is only a part of keeping kosher: we separate all meat from dairy, and are not permitted to mix meat and dairy products at the same meal (let alone in the same dish), we keep separate dishes for meat and for dairy foods, and we often wait a set time between eating meat and dairy.
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we also have halal eating, though again not to the extent that the jews have. muslims are permitted to eat meat and dairy in the same meal, in the same dish. there are no rules against this.
i am aware of some of the jewish dietary rituals because my wife studied them while doing her dietetics degree. she called it a 'kosher kitchen' where there were seperate utinsils and seperate dishes for different foods. im amazed at how it works, and would be interested to hear about it in more detail.
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Also, there are a lot more animals we are not permitted to eat than just pigs. A whole lot more. Most of them, really. What about you guys? Just pigs, or anything else?
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though porcine products are prohibited, there are some animals that we cannot eat. generally speaking, it is animals that eat meat. beasts of prey like tigers, lions etc, birds of prey like eagles etc, dogs, cats etc. i dont know the exact rules because ive never looked them up because they dont really apply in my situation.
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Do you have stuff you can't mix, or other things you're not supposed to eat. I mean, besides alcohol. I know about not drinking alcohol. Although now that I think of it, it was explained to me once that alcohol is forbidden because the Qur'an seeks to prohibit drunkenness. So could Muslims eat a dish that is cooked with wine or brandy, in which the alcohol has cooked off?
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yeah the obvious one is alcohol. but alcohol is not prohibited because the quran wanted to prohibit drunkedness, but moreso because it's an intoxicant. therefore, with the same reasoning, drugs are considered a prohibition.
verse 2.219 in the Quran states "They ask Thee concerning Wine and Gambling, Say: In them is great sin, and some profit, for men; but the sin is greater than the profit."
anything that is considered "haram" or prohibited is prohibited in small or large quantities. therefore utinsels or dishes that have been served with alcohol need to be cleaned and washed before being used. any foods that contain alcohol for flavour, even though it evaporates is considered prohibited under this law.
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Finally, one last question about practice. In Judaism, we have formalized blessings (single-line liturgical units, which always begin with the Hebrew for "Blessed are you, YHVH our God, King of the Universe..." and then go on to thank or at least mention God's having created something or commanded us to do something) which we say before and after eating, drinking, performing ritual duties, going to the bathroom, seeing marvels of nature, or experiencing other phenomena in the world. So for example, before eating an apple, we make the blessing "Blessed are you, YHVH our God, King of the Universe, who creates the fruit of trees," or when smelling a flower we make the blessing "Blessed are you, YHVH our God, King of the Universe, who creates fragrant plants," or when we light the candles that inaugurate the beginning of the weekly shabbat (sabbath), we make the blessing "Blessed are you, YHVH our God, King of the Universe, who sanctified us with commandments, and commanded us to kindle lights for the shabbat." We have a zillion of these, for everything under the sun, every day. Do you guys have anything similar? Something by which you recall God frequently, something to kick up the everyday with a little holiness? It seems to me like something Muslims would have. Anything?
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yes, muslims have similar things. actually, the more i'm finding out about judaism, the more im seeing similarities between it and islam. there are prayers, blessings and sayings, rememberences etc for things like waking up, before you sleep, before going to the bathroom, before you eat, after you eat, before you leave the house, before entering the house, before embarking on a trip,after sneezing, coughing etc etc etc. theres pretty much a prayer for everything to do with your day, some are simple one liners like "bismillah" (in the name if god) or "alhamdulillah" (praise be to god) to longer ones for travel that you hear on a lot of the middle eastern airlines before the plane takes off.
theres still one question ill need to answer for you that i have not yet answered, so ill leave that for another post
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Thanks for doing this thread, man. It's a real service to your fellows.
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glad i can be of service! hope it clarifies things..any further questions, im more than happy to field
---------- Post added at 06:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:36 PM ----------
just wanted to add that theres a concise wiki page on islamic dietary rules if you're interested
Islamic dietary laws - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
---------- Post added at 07:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:38 PM ----------
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Originally Posted by Reese
Christianity has many denominations which have varying amounts commitment involved and disagree about trivial(to me anyways) matters. Catholicism, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian - The list goes on and on. Are there any differences or major disagreements of the faith within Islam or is the faith pretty united in it's beliefs? Obviously, there are extremist as with other religions so there's no need to point that out.
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difference of opinion in human nature. therefore is only natural that some interpret the way they see their religion differently to others. islam is not exempt from this. the major differences is obviously the two major sects Sunni and Shia (aka shiite)
ive answered this in post #27 with regards to sunni and shia. i can continue this if you want me to.
within the sunni sect itself, there are 4 main schools of thought based on the ideologies of 4 scholars. most sunnis follow one of these depending on what part of the world they come come. again difference of opinion on many things are present depending on the interpretation of the scholar. its well known that some people tend to take from all 4 main schools of thought as well. the literary works done on the schools of thought are so volumous that it'd take a lifetime to read, but most are about islamic law and jurispudence regarding injunctions, fatwas, and decisions on certain verses, interpretations of hadith, etc etc, so there is always another opinion.
as a whole though, the principles are pretty set and agreement is reached on those main principles. let me know if you want me to get into any details or examples.