Why Working at Mcdonalds is Not Haram For a Muslim
C.J Ahmed-17.05.2023
Mcdonalds is a restaurant that has come under scrutiny due to various conspiracy theories made against the fast food chain. Far as Islam is concerned, there is nothing haram in working at Mcdonalds.
A typical Mcdonald’s meal will contain the following ingredients,
1% Partly Skimmed Milk:
Ingredients: Partly skimmed milk, Vitamin A palmitate, Vitamin D3.
Contains: Milk.
8” Whole Wheat Tortilla:
Ingredients: Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Soybean Oil Shortening, Dextrose, Baking Powder, Salt, Corn Starch, Mono- and Diglycerides, Vital Wheat Gluten, Fumaric
Acid, Yeast, Plant Fiber (Potato, Plantain).
Contains: Wheat.
Apple Juice:
Ingredients: Concentrated apple juice, Ascorbic acid (vitamin C).
Beef Patty:
Ingredients: 100% pure beef.
(Source- https://dna.mcdonalds.com/ca/downloads/IngredientslistCA_EN.pdf)
The Halal Certificate is a Lie And Doubtful Food Items Are Clearly Halal
When in a restaurant or in a gathering where food is served, many of you would have come across muslims avoiding eating foods which are doubtful and the argument for this is that doubtful food items should be avoided. If you ask them in which hadith is this mentioned they will quote a hadith which is unrelated to this. The hadith is as follows,
Nu’man ibn Basheer (rali) narrated,
" I heard the Messenger of Allah (sal) say: “That which is lawful is clear and that which is unlawful is clear and between the two of them are doubtful [or ambiguous] matters about which not many people are knowledgeable. Thus, he who avoids these doubtful matters certainly clears himself in regard to his religion and his honour. But he who falls into the doubtful matters falls into that which is unlawful like the shepherd who pastures around a sanctuary, all but grazing therein. Verily every king has a sanctuary and Allah’s sanctuary is His prohibition. In the body there is a morsel of flesh which, if it be sound, all the body is sound and which, if it be diseased, all the body is diseased. This part of the body is the heart”
(Bukhari and Muslim)
This hadith has been misunderstood. This hadith talks about the action of being doubtful due to the person not understanding the ruling properly, therefore the deficiency is not in the ruling itself or in what is doubtful in general, but in the understanding of that individual. This applies to an issue of fiqh and not in the issue of eating food because the following two hadiths mention clearly that you can eat doubtful food by simply saying Allah's name over it.
Narrated `Aisha (rali),
Some people said, "O Allah's Messenger (sal)! Meat is brought to us by some people and we are not sure whether the name of Allah has been mentioned on it or not (at the time of slaughtering the animals)." Allah's Messenger (sal) said (to them), "Mention the name of Allah and eat it."
(Bukhari)
This is a beautiful hadith where the prophet (sal) told the companions who asked him about meat that was brought to them and they were not sure whether Allah's name was mentioned and the prophet (sal) told them to mention Allah's name and eat it. For something to be haram it needs clear proof and mere assumption or doubt will not make something haram. The next evidence is as follows,
Abu Bakr (rali) told us: Jareer told us, from Mughirah, from Abu Waa’il and Ibrahim, who said: When the Muslims came, they got some food from the Magians, their cheese and bread, and they ate and did not ask about that. The cheese was described to ‘Umar (rali) and he said: Mention the name of Allah over it and eat it.
(Narrated by Ibn Abi Shaybah-5/130 and Imam ibn Hibban graded it as an authentic hadith because the narrators are of Bukhari and Muslim)
The above hadith of the rightly guided caliphs proves clearly that the sahabah did not question food given to them even if they happened to be non-muslims. The Magians were idol worshippers and could have used haram ingredients in preparing food but the general principle is to eat the food given by anyone including Jews by simply mentioning Allah's name and there is no need for making a fuss over it. Some Muslims nowadays make a huge fuss going after halal and make their lives very problematic and filled with hardships. The prophet (sal) and his companions never issued halal certificates for food items like nowadays and the way of the prophet (sal) and his companions was practical and easy to follow. Nowadays the halal certification is made more as a business venture and this form of halal certification we see in various countries has no basis in the Quran or the authentic hadiths.
Mcdonalds is a restaurant that has come under scrutiny due to various conspiracy theories made against the fast food chain. Far as Islam is concerned, there is nothing haram in working at Mcdonalds.
A typical Mcdonald’s meal will contain the following ingredients,
1% Partly Skimmed Milk:
Ingredients: Partly skimmed milk, Vitamin A palmitate, Vitamin D3.
Contains: Milk.
8” Whole Wheat Tortilla:
Ingredients: Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Soybean Oil Shortening, Dextrose, Baking Powder, Salt, Corn Starch, Mono- and Diglycerides, Vital Wheat Gluten, Fumaric
Acid, Yeast, Plant Fiber (Potato, Plantain).
Contains: Wheat.
Apple Juice:
Ingredients: Concentrated apple juice, Ascorbic acid (vitamin C).
Beef Patty:
Ingredients: 100% pure beef.
(Source- https://dna.mcdonalds.com/ca/downloads/IngredientslistCA_EN.pdf)
The Halal Certificate is a Lie And Doubtful Food Items Are Clearly Halal
When in a restaurant or in a gathering where food is served, many of you would have come across muslims avoiding eating foods which are doubtful and the argument for this is that doubtful food items should be avoided. If you ask them in which hadith is this mentioned they will quote a hadith which is unrelated to this. The hadith is as follows,
Nu’man ibn Basheer (rali) narrated,
" I heard the Messenger of Allah (sal) say: “That which is lawful is clear and that which is unlawful is clear and between the two of them are doubtful [or ambiguous] matters about which not many people are knowledgeable. Thus, he who avoids these doubtful matters certainly clears himself in regard to his religion and his honour. But he who falls into the doubtful matters falls into that which is unlawful like the shepherd who pastures around a sanctuary, all but grazing therein. Verily every king has a sanctuary and Allah’s sanctuary is His prohibition. In the body there is a morsel of flesh which, if it be sound, all the body is sound and which, if it be diseased, all the body is diseased. This part of the body is the heart”
(Bukhari and Muslim)
This hadith has been misunderstood. This hadith talks about the action of being doubtful due to the person not understanding the ruling properly, therefore the deficiency is not in the ruling itself or in what is doubtful in general, but in the understanding of that individual. This applies to an issue of fiqh and not in the issue of eating food because the following two hadiths mention clearly that you can eat doubtful food by simply saying Allah's name over it.
Narrated `Aisha (rali),
Some people said, "O Allah's Messenger (sal)! Meat is brought to us by some people and we are not sure whether the name of Allah has been mentioned on it or not (at the time of slaughtering the animals)." Allah's Messenger (sal) said (to them), "Mention the name of Allah and eat it."
(Bukhari)
This is a beautiful hadith where the prophet (sal) told the companions who asked him about meat that was brought to them and they were not sure whether Allah's name was mentioned and the prophet (sal) told them to mention Allah's name and eat it. For something to be haram it needs clear proof and mere assumption or doubt will not make something haram. The next evidence is as follows,
Abu Bakr (rali) told us: Jareer told us, from Mughirah, from Abu Waa’il and Ibrahim, who said: When the Muslims came, they got some food from the Magians, their cheese and bread, and they ate and did not ask about that. The cheese was described to ‘Umar (rali) and he said: Mention the name of Allah over it and eat it.
(Narrated by Ibn Abi Shaybah-5/130 and Imam ibn Hibban graded it as an authentic hadith because the narrators are of Bukhari and Muslim)
The above hadith of the rightly guided caliphs proves clearly that the sahabah did not question food given to them even if they happened to be non-muslims. The Magians were idol worshippers and could have used haram ingredients in preparing food but the general principle is to eat the food given by anyone including Jews by simply mentioning Allah's name and there is no need for making a fuss over it. Some Muslims nowadays make a huge fuss going after halal and make their lives very problematic and filled with hardships. The prophet (sal) and his companions never issued halal certificates for food items like nowadays and the way of the prophet (sal) and his companions was practical and easy to follow. Nowadays the halal certification is made more as a business venture and this form of halal certification we see in various countries has no basis in the Quran or the authentic hadiths.