What Is Halal? Meaning, Food, Slaughter and Certification

Halal is an Arabic word meaning permitted or lawful. In Islam, it describes anything a Muslim is allowed to do, and in everyday English it’s used most often for food and drink. Its opposite is haram, meaning forbidden.

Here’s the part many people don’t realise: in Islamic law, food is halal by default. Fruit, vegetables, grains, milk, eggs and fish are all halal unless something haram is added. The questions come up mainly with meat, which has to come from a permitted animal slaughtered in the Islamic way, and with processed ingredients like gelatin, alcohol and some E-numbers.

This guide explains what halal means, what makes food and meat halal, how zabiha slaughter works, where scholars and certifiers disagree, who certifies halal food around the world, and how to check any product yourself.

Halal at a glance

What does halal mean?

The Arabic root of halal, h-l-l, carries the idea of untying or releasing. Something halal is “released” from restriction: you’re free to do it. In the Quran, Allah tells all people:

“O humanity! Eat from what is lawful and good on the earth and do not follow Satan’s footsteps.” (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:168)

The word for “lawful” in that verse is halal, and “good” is tayyib. Muslims are asked for both.

Halal and tayyib: lawful and good

Tayyib means good, pure and wholesome. Scholars explain that food should be halal in its ruling and tayyib in its quality: clean, safe, not harmful, and produced without cruelty or cheating. That’s why Islamic slaughter rules include kindness to animals, and why halal certifiers also check hygiene. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:

“Verily Allah has enjoined goodness to everything; so when you kill, kill in a good way and when you slaughter, slaughter in a good way.” (Sahih Muslim 1955)

In the same hadith, he told people to sharpen their blades and spare the animal suffering.

Where halal fits among the five rulings

Islamic law sorts every action into five categories:

1. Obligatory (fard or wajib)
2. Recommended (mustahabb)
3. Permitted (mubah)
4. Disliked (makruh)
5. Forbidden (haram)

In everyday speech, “halal” covers the first four: anything that isn’t haram. We explain all five in detail in our guide to what is haram.

The golden rule: most things are halal

The most important principle in this whole subject is that permission is the default. The Prophet (peace be upon him) was asked about fat, cheese and furs, and he said:

“The lawful is what Allah made lawful in His Book, the unlawful is what Allah made unlawful in his Book, and what He was silent about; then it is among that for which He has pardoned.” (Jami at-Tirmidhi 1726)

Imam al-Suyuti, the Shafi’i jurist, records this as a legal maxim in al-Ashbah wa al-Naza’ir: the default ruling for things is permissibility. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi made it the first principle of his well-known book The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam.

The principle works in both directions. Allah warns against inventing new prohibitions:

“O believers! Do not forbid the good things which Allah has made lawful for you, and do not transgress.” (Surah Al-Ma’idah 5:87)

And He asks, “Who has forbidden the adornments and lawful provisions Allah has brought forth for His servants?” (Surah Al-A’raf 7:32).

So when you’re unsure about a food, the question isn’t “is there proof it’s halal?” It’s “is there a reason it’s haram?”

What makes food halal?

For any food or drink, four things decide whether it’s halal:

Most foods pass all four without anyone thinking about it. Here’s how the main food groups compare.

Which animals are halal?

The Quran says, “All grazing livestock has been made lawful to you” (Surah Al-Ma’idah 5:1), and “It is lawful for you to hunt and eat seafood, as a provision for you and for travellers” (Surah Al-Ma’idah 5:96).

What is halal meat? Zabiha slaughter explained

Meat is where halal gets detailed. For meat from a permitted land animal or bird to be halal, it has to be slaughtered by the Islamic method, called zabiha or dhabiha. The Prophet (peace be upon him) summed it up:

“if the killing tool causes blood to gush out, and if Allah’s Name is mentioned, eat (of the slaughtered animal).” (Sahih al-Bukhari 5503)

And the Quran says, “Do not eat of what is not slaughtered in Allah’s Name” (Surah Al-An’am 6:121).

The requirements of zabiha

Scholars and certifiers such as the Halal Monitoring Committee (HMC) list these conditions:

1. The animal is alive and healthy at the moment of slaughter.
2. The slaughterer is a Muslim, sane and of age. Some scholars also accept a Christian or Jew (see below).
3. Allah’s name is said, usually “Bismillah, Allahu Akbar”, over the animal at the time of slaughter.
4. A very sharp knife is used, so the cut is quick and the animal suffers as little as possible.
5. The throat is cut so that the windpipe, the food pipe and the two jugular veins are severed. HMC requires at least three of these four.
6. The blood drains out. Flowing blood is forbidden to eat.
7. The animal is treated kindly. It shouldn’t see the blade sharpened or another animal slaughtered.

Saying Allah’s name: the four schools

The schools agree the tasmiyah should be said. They differ on what happens if it’s left out:

Stunning and machine slaughter: where certifiers disagree

Modern meat production raises two questions the classical books didn’t face. Certifiers answer them differently, which is why “halal” on one label can mean something different on another.

Stunning means making the animal unconscious before slaughter, usually with electricity or gas. The worry is that stunning could kill the animal before the cut, making it carrion.

Machine slaughter is common for chickens: a rotating blade cuts thousands of birds an hour.

• HMA rejects it, because “it is impractical to bless each and every single bird individually prior to slaughter.”
• Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, the Hanafi jurist and former judge of the Shariat Appellate Bench of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, argues in The Islamic Laws of Animal Slaughter that the tasmiyah must be said by the person slaughtering for each animal. On his view, most machine slaughter isn’t acceptable.
• Other certifiers accept it when a Muslim starts the line and Muslims recite the tasmiyah throughout. That’s how the chicken used at some US chains is certified, as we explain in our guide to Krispy Krunchy Chicken.

In practice, “zabiha” is often used to mean hand slaughtered, unstunned meat, while a general “halal” label may include stunned or machine slaughtered meat. If this matters to you, check which certifier is on the pack.

Meat from Christians and Jews

The Quran says, “the food of the People of the Book is permissible for you” (Surah Al-Ma’idah 5:5). Scholars agree this includes meat slaughtered by Christians and Jews in principle. They disagree on how it applies today.

• Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi took a broad view: meat from Christian and Jewish countries is permissible unless you know it was killed in a forbidden way.
• Mufti Taqi Usmani and most halal certifiers take a strict view. They say industrial slaughter, often by people of no particular faith, with stunning and without God’s name, isn’t what the verse describes.

Most Muslims in the West follow the stricter view and buy certified meat.

Halal certification: who certifies, and what a logo means

A halal certificate is a way of checking. It doesn’t make food halal. A plain apple is halal without one. But for meat and processed food, where you can’t see the source, certification is the practical way to know.

Major halal certifiers and standards

Supplier certificate vs restaurant certificate

Restaurants cause the most confusion here. A supplier certificate says the meat was halal when it left the plant. A restaurant certificate says the certifier has checked the whole kitchen: every ingredient, the oil, storage, and whether any pork or alcohol is used.

In 2024, CBC Marketplace found that at several Canadian fast food chains, staff showed a supplier certificate as if it covered the whole restaurant. We cover this in our guides to KFC and Mary Brown’s. When a restaurant says “halal”, ask which kind of certificate it has.

Halal vs kosher

Halal and kosher are often compared, and they share a lot. But they aren’t the same.

Is kosher halal? Some scholars accept kosher meat under Quran 5:5. Most halal certifiers don’t treat it as equivalent, mainly because of how God’s name is said. Kosher food can also contain alcohol, such as wine in sauces, which is never halal.

Halal beyond food

Halal isn’t just a food label. It’s a way of living within what Allah permits, and it covers:

• Earnings. Money must be earned honestly, without cheating, theft or forbidden work. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Allah is Good and He therefore, accepts only that which is good” (Sahih Muslim 1015), and described a man whose prayers go unanswered because his food, drink and clothes came from unlawful sources. He also warned, “A time will come when one will not care how one gains one’s money, legally or illegally” (Sahih al-Bukhari 2059).
• Finance. Interest (riba) is forbidden, so Islamic banking uses profit sharing, leasing and trade instead.
• Medicine. Capsules may contain gelatin, and syrups may contain alcohol. Scholars allow some things under necessity. Ask your pharmacist for alternatives.
• Cosmetics and toiletries. Some contain animal fats, gelatin, carmine or alcohol. Rulings vary between things you eat and things you apply to the skin.
• Business and trade. Honest dealing, fair measures and no fraud are part of halal.

We explain the forbidden side of each of these in what is haram.

How to check if a product is halal

Here’s a practical checklist for shopping anywhere:

1. Look for a halal logo from a certifier you trust. Check the certifier’s name, not just the word “halal”.
2. Check whether it contains meat. If it does and there’s no certificate, assume it isn’t halal.
3. Read the ingredients for the common problems: pork, lard, gelatin, animal rennet, alcohol, wine, carmine or cochineal (E120), and meat-derived flavourings.
4. Look for “suitable for vegetarians” or “vegan”. These rule out meat, gelatin and animal fats, though not alcohol.
5. Check E-numbers you’re unsure about. See our guides to E621 and E631.
6. At restaurants, ask what the certificate covers, whether pork or alcohol is used, and whether fryers are shared.
7. When in doubt, leave it. The Prophet (peace be upon him) told us to leave what makes us doubt for what doesn’t, but don’t forbid what’s clearly permitted either.

Find the answer for a specific food

We’ve researched the halal status of hundreds of foods, brands and ingredients. Some of the most asked:

• Fast food: KFC, Popeyes, Nando’s, Five Guys, Chick-fil-A, Wingstop, Domino’s
• Snacks and sweets: Doritos, Takis, Skittles, Oreo, Smarties
• Drinks: Red Bull, Monster, Prime, kombucha, bubble tea
• Ingredients: gelatin, cheese, vanilla extract, spirit vinegar, white wine vinegar
• Meat and seafood: chicken, duck, prawns