ONCE upon a time, there lived an evil king who planned to convert his kingdom's subjects to polytheism, but his plan failed every time due to the existence of a community of pious men who lived reclusively in the hills.
The monotheist pious men prayed hard that no evil or untoward incidents befell the people of the kingdom, who returned the favour by supplying grains and livestock to the devout men.
The ecclesiastical men invoke d supplications every time they consumed their food and drinks. One crucial practice these men taught to the people was to invoke the name of God to purify their food, especially when they slaughtered animals.
Running out of avenues to convert the people to polytheism, the king felt helpless until he received word from his lackeys about the daily rituals of the devout men. A grand plan was then hatched.
"The trick is, sire, you must announce to your royal subjects that you're renouncing polytheism and have now embraced monotheism.
To celebrate your imaginary religion, you will announce that the palace will hold a feast at their house of worship.
"More importantly, we will serve them with ill-gotten food and meats that are not slaughtered according to their rituals. We will bribe the butchers and cooks with all the gold and riches you can give, sire," advised one lackey.
On the day of the feast held on the hills, the people were overjoyed by the change of heart of their king, and the people, including the pious men, merrily joined the feast. Soon after the feast, the people in the kingdom converted to polytheism, idolising multiple gods.
What worsened the situation was that the prayers and invocations the pious men made were no longer accepted by God. Fast-forward to the debacle facing Muslims in Malaysia today.
We're angry with the meat cartel that has imported meat of questionable halal status.
We're angry with the authorities that could have done something about it for 40 years.
Analogically, the meat cartel is the king, while the butchers and cooks are the people in authority who were bribed with gold and wealth and who turned a blind eye to this debacle for 40 years.
In Islam, there are many hadiths about upholding halal food stringently. One hadith related by Tabarani that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) told a companion by the name of Sa'ad: "O Sa'ad purify your food (and as a result) you will become one whose supplications are accepted. I swear by God in whose hands the soul of Muhammad lies, verily a servant (of Allah) tosses a Haram morsel in his stomach (due to which) no deed is accepted from him for 40 days."
I can't fathom the idea of the deeds of a Muslim not being accepted for 40 days, including his five prayers a day and his supplications when he tosses a haram morsel into his stomach.
But 40 years? I can't imagine what would happen to me and the deeds of other fellow Muslims in this country if we have been consuming haram meat for 40 years.
This is just horrible. I hope the culprits will be dealt with severely by the law.
For Muslims, the consumption of non-halal food is strictly forbidden under Islamic law as much as taking bribes.
Muslims will not enter Paradise if they indulged in haram activities. A hadith reported by Jabir reported Prophet Muhammad as saying: "That flesh will not enter Paradise which has grown from Haram, and all that flesh which has grown from Haram, the fire (of hell) is more worthy of it."
The thing is, we have been a fool to believe that any food packaging with the halal label and logo is certified.
In a Muslim-majority country like ours, the halal certification is absolute key before consumption as it is the surest way to know that the products are syariah-compliant.
But now, I guess the perception is changing with this ongoing fiasco. Muslim consumers are faced with a broad selection of products that are somehow and sometimes doubtful.
Businesses have been irresponsible as they're interested in profiteering rather than being sensitive to the consumers' needs.
There are so many indicators pointing to the direction that there is a massive issue of trust and justice in the government approval process in this matter. It's really sad, but must we stand and do nothing?
The writer, a former NST journalist, is a film scriptwriter whose penchant is finding new food haunts