I am enquiring to you in regards to a particle Hadith on the topic of food and nourishment which states that if a person has even a single morsel of haram food inside his body then his worship is not accepted for the period of 40 days. This hadith has confused me a bit and left me in a lot of doubt and I find it very hard to perform any kind form of worship sometimes as I always have a doubt in my mind that I may have accidently ate haram or “doubtful” food without realising it (even though I think I take reasonable precautions) and there’s no point in me doing an ibaadat. Even if someone did happen to eat haram, isn’t there any way at all that they could cancel the above punishment? For example could they make sincere repentance or pay some sadaqah or read salat’ul’taubah to please Allah or would that not be accepted either? I have also heard that as long as a person keep making progress towards Allah then his deeds are accepted, if this is true then the above Hadith does not apply right? Btw, is it OK to eat spirit vinegar (ingredient you find in mayonaise and many sauces)? Many thanks for answering my question, jazakallah.
The meaning of the Hadith that if someone consumes even a single morsel of Haraam food, then his ?Ibaadat (worship) will not be accepted for a period of 40 days is not that his ?Ibaadat such as Salaah, fasting, Zakaat, etc will not be fulfilled but that it will be deprived of the Noor (light), Barakaat (blessings) and complete reward will not be attained for these act of ?Ibaadat. We should not have this misconception that if our ?Ibaadat is not accepted then we do not have to perform any ?Ibaadat and that what is the use of us performing ?Ibaadat. The actual purpose of this Hadith is to encourage us to abstain from Haraam so that we may attain full reward, Noor and Barakaat for our ?Ibaadat. We can only attain closeness to Allah Ta’ala when ?Ibaadat is fulfilled exactly as it should be done. Therefore there is no conflict in the two narrations that you have mentioned. (Mishkaat, Page 243)
If spirit vinegar is not an intoxicant, then it will be permissible to consume it. (Mazaahir-e-Haqq, Vol. 4, Page 152)
and Allah Ta’ala Knows Best
Mufti Muhammad Ashraf
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