Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
A subscriber commented:
It’s a PACKET OF CRISP … GET OVER IT!!!
Why are Muslims baffled over the contents of a packet of crisps?!?! If there is any doubt … simply don’t eat it, Allah, Most Merciful, has provided hundreds of HALAL alternatives for u to eat… and there are more important things for us to be “baffled about”!
Allah Most High says,
“Then We gave the Scripture as inheritance unto those whom We elected of Our creation. But of them are some who wrong themselves and of them are some who are lukewarm, and of them are some who outstrip (others) through good deeds, by Allah’s leave.”
[Qur’an, 35.32]
Walaikum assalam,
What you suggest is very noble and is certainly the way of caution and scrupulousness, but Islam accepts people as they are and then points them towards all that is best. It accepts the reality that not everyone can be Junayd al-Baghdadi or Rabi`a al-Adawiyya.
The Sacred Law’s rulings deal with the reality that most people are at different degrees of lukewarm’ [as Sayyidi Mohammed Pickthall (Allah have mercy on him) translated the Qur’anic term muqtasid].
This is why the scholars studied the texts of the Qur’an and Sunna deeply, and carefully classified their commands into the various categories [see below]. Those traveling the path of the Next Life seek to do everything that the Lawgiver called them to do, whether obligatory or recommended, and leave everything He called them not to do, whether forbidden or disliked. They seek to have high intentions with permitted matters, to turn them into means of seeking the Pleasure of Allah. Others have some actions by which they seek to go beyond the salvific minimum of doing the obligatory and leaving the prohibited. Others have shortcoming even in this
To err is human; to seek the truth, recognize one’s shortcomings, repent, and love one’s Creator that’s the nature of Muslims.
Ibn Abbas (Allah be pleased with him) related that the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace be upon him) said, “Allah turns towards those who turn in repentance.” [Bukhari and Muslim]
Each Does According to His Way
Allah Most High says,
“Say: Each one does according to his way, and your Lord is Best Aware of him whose way is right.” [Qur’an, 17.84]
In Imam Sawi (Allah have mercy on him) explained the word shakilatihi (his way’) in his Hashiya on Tafsir al-Jalalayn:
“This means that each one of us and you acts according to their state, disposition, and that which their soul was habituated to . And in this verse there is proof that the outward points to the inward.” [Sawi, Hashiyat al-Jalalay, 3.337]
Sufyan ibn Abdullah (Allah be pleased with him) related that, “I asked, O Messenger of Allah, tell me something about Islam which I could not ask anyone but you.’ He said (Allah bless him & give him peace), Say, “I believe in Allah,” and then remain upright.'” [Muslim]
And Allah alone gives success.
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani