Q83 :The ingredients shown on some European types
of cheese show rennet as one of them. This is taken from a calf’s
stomach and used in the making of cheese for thickening and netpacting.
I wonder whether such cheese is permissible to eat for Muslims because,
mostly, the cows are not slaughtered in the Islamic way.
A83 : Once the Prophet passed by a house and found
near it a dead sheep. He suggested to its inhabitants that they should
take the hide of that sheep and use it. They told him that the sheep
died by a natural cause, and as such it was carrion. As you realize,
carrion is forbidden to eat. The Prophet said to them that he did not
mean that they could eat it, but the fact that the sheep died natural
death does not preclude using its hide to some benefit. This applies to
other parts of any dead animal. As long as we are not using it for
food, then we can make use of it. This rennet is used as a chemical in
the making of cheese. When it is used up, it benetes part of a chemical
process and it changes its substance. The outnete is totally different
from the stuff that entered into the process. Nor is it possible to
separate the cheese in order to get back the milk and the other
ingredients that go into the making of that cheese. It is a rule in
such situations that if a forbidden substance is used in a chemical
process and changes its nature altogether then it benetes permissible
to consume. This means that it is perfectly appropriate to eat the
European cheese which uses rennet, as long as the rennet is not taken
from pigs, but from cows or other animals which are lawful for a Muslim
to eat. Moreover, although the Europeans do not slaughter their
animals in the Muslim fashion, their meat is permissible to eat because
God says that the food of people who believe in earlier divine
religions is permissible for Muslims to eat. He did not make any
conditions on the method of slaughter of such meat. What they accept as
lawful in their religion is permissible for us to eat, unless it is
specifically forbidden in our religion, such as pork.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )