Halal and quality: why they are different concepts
I often ask people a simple question:
What quality should a halal product be?
The more I ask, the more convinced I become that most people do not know the precise difference. Even many Muslims see the word halal as a mark of high quality.
For many, the reasoning goes something like this:
- if it is halal, it must be pure;
- if it is pure, it must be beneficial;
- if it is beneficial, it must be high quality;
- if it is high quality, it must be the best.
But that chain of reasoning is wrong.
Halal and quality are different things. They measure entirely different aspects and have no inherent connection with one another.
Halal does not mean high quality, and high quality does not mean halal. People very often confuse these two separate subjects.
What does halal actually mean?
Halal is not a premium-quality label.
Halal means that an action is permissible.
This is where the main confusion begins. People commonly say pork is haram, alcohol is haram, or this product is haram. More precisely, however, the prohibition concerns a person's action involving the object, rather than the object simply existing.
When people say pork is haram, they mean that a person is forbidden to eat pork. Pork itself, as an object, commits no sin. For example, it may be given to a dog.
When people say alcohol is haram, they mean that drinking it as a beverage is forbidden. Medical use, treatment of surfaces, technical applications and other situations involve different actions that are considered separately.
Halal and haram concern people's actions first and foremost.
For example:
- eating;
- drinking;
- selling;
- buying;
- deceiving;
- concealing important information;
- passing one product off as another;
- earning money dishonestly.
So the right question goes beyond simply asking whether a product is halal.
It is better to look more deeply:
- Is it permissible to eat this?
- Is it permissible to drink this?
- Is it permissible to sell it in this way?
- Is it permissible to advertise it in these words?
- Is it permissible to earn money from it this way?
- Does it involve lies, deception, harm or injustice?
That is where a meaningful discussion of halal begins.
What is quality?
Quality is a different question altogether.
Quality does not answer whether something is permitted or forbidden.
Quality answers this question:
How good is the product itself?
Quality has its own indicators:
- what the product is made from;
- how fresh it is;
- how it was stored;
- how it was produced;
- whether it has retained its properties;
- how safe it is;
- whether it matches its description;
- whether it was packaged correctly;
- whether it was damaged after production.
Quality is the standard of the product.
Halal is the permissibility of an action.
These are different dimensions.
| Concept | What question does it answer? |
|---|---|
| Halal | Is this action permissible? |
| Quality | How good is the product itself? |
| Honesty | Is the product presented honestly to the buyer? |
The same product can be halal with one seller and haram with another
Here is a very simple example.
Imagine the same honey: the same product, the same batch and the same quality.
The first seller says honestly:
This is ordinary natural honey. It is not rare, medicinal or particularly special. It is simply good honey from a specified origin.
The second seller takes that very same honey and says:
This is rare mountain honey. Medicinal. Special. Almost impossible to find anywhere else.
Even though the seller knows this is untrue.
Has the honey itself changed?
No.
Has its quality changed?
No.
But the seller's action has changed.
- The first seller is making an honest sale.
- The second seller's sale is based on a lie.
The product's quality remains the same, but the person's action is different.
This clearly illustrates that halal and quality are not directly connected. The same product may be involved in a permissible or forbidden transaction depending on how someone sells it.
The problem lies in the person's action, rather than in the honey.
Quality belongs to the product. Halal or haram is expressed in the action.
A high-quality product can be haram
This is important to understand too.
A product can be of excellent technical quality while its consumption is forbidden.
For example, an expensive alcoholic drink may be produced to a high standard, with clean production, attractive packaging, a high price, sound technology and quality control.
For a Muslim, however, drinking it remains haram.
High quality does not make a forbidden action permissible.
The same can apply to any item or transaction. A product may be expensive, beautiful and well made, but if consuming or selling it, or the way money is earned from it, is forbidden, quality does not resolve the problem.
Quality does not turn haram into halal.
A low-quality product can be halal
The reverse is also true.
A product can be simple, inexpensive, outside the premium range and modest in taste, appearance or value, while its consumption and sale may still be halal.
Honey, for example, may be ordinary: not rare, not mountain honey, not especially fragrant or expensive, just ordinary natural honey.
If the seller honestly explains what honey it is, makes no impossible promises, does not pass it off as another variety and conceals no important details, that sale may be halal.
The product may not be of the highest quality.
But it is honestly described.
Low quality alone does not make a product haram.
The problem begins when someone conceals this, deceives the buyer or presents a modest product as something better.
Halal is not a cover for poor quality
There is another important point here.
You cannot say:
What matters is that it is halal; quality does not matter.
That is a mistake too.
A product being halal does not mean you can stop paying attention to quality.
- Halal does not make an old product fresh.
- Halal does not make a weak product strong.
- Halal does not make improper storage proper.
- Halal does not turn a lie into the truth.
- Halal does not turn poor work into good work.
A seller who describes a product as halal must not use that word to shield themselves from questions about quality.
The buyer has the right to know what they are buying.
Especially when it comes to food.
Halal is not a marketing stamp
Today, the word halal is often used as an attractive stamp of trust.
Buyers are given the impression that a halal label means they can relax and need not check anything else.
But this is a dangerous way to think.
Halal is the first filter, but it is not the only one.
Other questions remain:
- what is the quality level?
- who is the seller?
- is the description honest?
- how was the product stored?
- are its properties exaggerated?
- are any shortcomings concealed?
- does the price reflect its actual value?
The word halal does not remove any of these questions.
Buying a halal product does not automatically mean buying a high-quality product.
And buying a high-quality product does not automatically mean that consuming or purchasing it was halal.
The third word: honesty
There is another important word in this discussion: honesty.
There is halal. There is quality. And there is honesty.
- Halal is the permissibility of an action.
- Quality is the standard of the product.
- Honesty is how a person presents that product.
Honesty is what brings them together.
You can have a good product and spoil everything by lying.
You can have a simple product and sell it honestly.
You can have a halal product yet advertise it so that people buy an appealing fiction rather than the product itself.
This happens very often in beekeeping:
- ordinary honey is called rare;
- honey of unknown origin is called mountain honey;
- an old product is called fresh;
- an ordinary product is called medicinal;
- buyers are promised things that nobody can honestly promise.
The problem is not always the product itself. Sometimes the product is perfectly ordinary, but the way it is sold makes the whole situation dishonest.
Why am I talking about this?
I am not speaking as a theorist.
I work with bee products myself and constantly see how people respond to words, packaging, promises and appealing names.
Many buyers are looking for a genuine product. They often do not realise that authenticity concerns more than what is inside the jar.
A genuine product also involves the person who takes responsibility for that jar.
I have seen many times that people may ask whether a product is halal without asking about its quality.
Conversely, someone may see a beautiful, expensive, neatly packaged product and automatically assume that its permissibility is also beyond question.
These are different questions.
Until we distinguish them, we are easy to deceive.
The word halal can be used as an attractive signboard.
So can the word quality.
But a signboard is no guarantee.
The main conclusion
Halal and quality are different concepts.
Halal answers this question:
Is this action permissible?
Quality answers this question:
How good is the product itself?
The same product can be sold honestly or deceptively.
In the first case, the action may be permissible. In the second, it may be forbidden.
Even though the product and its quality have not changed.
Halal is not a quality stamp. Quality is not proof of halal.
The right path begins when all of these come together:
- a permissible action;
- a quality product;
- an honest sale;
- responsibility towards the buyer;
- responsibility before Allah.
That is what we should strive for.
We should do more than put halal on a label or call something high quality. We should make sure that the truth genuinely stands behind those words.
