New Muslims-> Easy Guide for New Muslims

EASY GUIDE FOR NEW MUSLIMS

3) DIET

To maintain a pure heart and a sound mind, Islam provides the necessary dietary guidelines to nourish your soul  and maintain a clean and healthy body. Islam specifies what is halal (allowed) and haram (forbidden).  Forbidden for you to consume is pork and any of its by-products, animals which were slaughtered in the name of a deity other than Allah, alcohol of any type or any food prepared with alcohol, blood, animals found dead. It is only permisible for you to eat any of these foods if you are faced with a life or death situation and you need to eat them in order to survive, but even then you should only consume enough to keep you nourished. Along with alcohol, any sort of intoxicants such as drugs are also prohibitted.

A recommended and cautious way to shop around for grocery is to read  the labels on the food package or cans, or when eating at a restaurant ask your waiter if any of the ingredients include pork or alcohol (for instance, many dishes are made with mustard, and if dijon mustard is used then you can not eat it because white wine is an ingredient of all dijon mustards).  Some food packages have toll free 1-800 numbers,  call them if you are suspicious of any ingredient.