['Aalim Network QR] Follow-up - Eating at a Kafir's home

["Akil M. Karim" <amk@ican.net>]

________________________________________________________________________
|                          w           w     w                          |\
|                           ||          ||   | ||                       |\
|                    o_,_7 _||  . _o_7 _|| 4_|_||  o_w_,                |\
|                   ( :   /    (_)    /           (   .                 |\
|                                                                       |\
|           ||  ||         |  ||   |T              |     | ||    |      |\
|   . _, _8 |_D_|| . _,_,_,_D_|| 4_|| q ]_o_7_o   _|_c 4_|_||   _|,_p q |\
|  (_): /         (_): . :            /        (_S           (_S      / |\
|                                                                       |\
|       In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the All-Merciful       |\
|  Greeting of Allah be upon Muhammad and the pure members of his House |\
|_______________________________________________________________________|\
Salaamun 'Alaykum

The following follow-up question was kindly answered by Dr. Takim. (The
initial question and answer have been reproduced below for your convenience)


Fee Amaanillah,

Akil Karim
Moderator - 'Aalim Network

---------- Forwarded Message ----------

FOLLOW-UP QUESTION:

I read the previous answer to a question on this subject and I want to know
if 
the same rule (i.e. any food from kuffar are najis) must be applied to people 
from ghoulat sects (such as druzes or alawits).

The concrete situation is the following: my wife is a sunni Muslimah, but
she comes from a druze family, so I am always invited to eat with her family.


ANSWER:

The ghulat are considered as kafirs as they deify the Imams. The Imams have
condemned them for their extremist and unIslamic beliefs. The Druzes too are
not considered to be Muslims because they deify al-Hakim. They also consider
the shari'a to be nullified. 

----------

INITIAL QUESTION:

I come from India, since my school days in India to the present date I
have a very very good Hindu friend and colleague.  In school and college
we lived together in hostel accomodation.  Both of us have now come to
UK in pursuit of knowledge and money.  I have been eating food cooked at
his house with him ever since school days as not doing so would have
created alot of animosity, hatred, anger towards me and islam in
general.  This is considering the fact that I was one of very few muslim
students among hundreds of hindus.  

I am regularly invited by my Hindu friend now in UK to have dinner at
his house.  Considering my past sensitive situation and the closeness of
my friendship I find it impossible to come up with a religious based
reason to refuse to eat at his house.  Am I doing wrong or does the
religion of Islam show any flexibility in such situations?    


ANSWER:

The ruling by the 'ulama is that kuffar are najis. Hence, unless one is in
a life threatening situation, one cannot consume their food. 

Although it may not be easy to do so, you can excuse yourself or explain to
them that there are certain religious restrictions which prevent you from
consuming their food.

Liyakatali Takim