We have heard of Halal, but what is ‘Halalan Toyyiban’?
Halal, root word from Halalan literaly means ‘permissible’ or ‘lawful’. Halal also means ‘permitted by Syariah law without punishment imposed to the doer’. The opposite of Halal is Haram, which is “forbidden, unlawful”.
Meanwhile, Toyyib, root word from toyyiban means ‘good’. Therefore Halalan Toyyiban means the product is ‘permissible to be consumed or used and must be good and beneficial to the consumer’.
Halalan Toyyiban is not a new concept. It was core principle of Halal, in which the word appeared at least 4 times in al-Quran. For example in Surah al-Baqarah, verse 168:
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ كُلُوا مِمَّا فِي الْأَرْضِ حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ ۚ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُبِينٌ
O ye people! eat of what is on earth lawful and good; and do not follow the footsteps of the evil one for he is to you an avowed enemy. (Yusuf Ali translation)
From this verse, Allah SWT command us to eat, use, and utilise products not only Halal from the fiqh side, but also hygienic, safe, and high quality. There is other verses mention about Halalan Toyyiban in Surah al-Maidah (5:88), Surah al-Anfaal (8:69), and Surah an-Nahl (16:114).
Halal and Toyyib are complement to each other. Toyyiban value emphasise on ensuring quality and safety of the food before being eaten or product to be eat. Therefore to prepare a Halal food without concerning if it is toyyib or not will lead to fatal consequence.
Efforts Toward Halalan Toyyiban
A toyyib food is ‘good’, but a good food does not always ‘toyyib’. Therefore based on this situation, Jabatan Agama Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) together with Jabatan Agama Islam Negeri (JAIN) every state have created a Halal standard and procedure to ease the understanding of Halal concept. And it not just merely about Halal, it was supported with international standards such as Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Good Hygiene Practice (GHP).
While GMP and GHP have been practiced in Western countries since long ago, Halal standard promotes Good Halal Practice, in which it contains good Halal ethics, such as to forbid fraud, forgery, oppression, gharar (uncertainty) in business, scales cheating, using fake address and label and also any practices that violate the law and Acts.
Halal standards also includes Syariah law as basis added together with elements of modern science and also based upon the common law in this country, in order to execute the standards with firm. For example in context of dhabihah (slaughtering), if one perform a slaughtering of chicken by severing both its trachea (halqum) and oesophagus (marikh) tubes, it is Halal but if the slaughterer then place the chicken at the floor in which it contaminates with the germ and bacteria on the floor, it is not toyyib. Therefore the Halal certification will not be granted to them.
Halal standards also have similar practices of “from farm to fork” – a food production approach from Europe. Halal certification will be granted after going through heavily inspection of raw ingredients, food processing, food handling, food additive, packaging, tools, storage, transportation, and other aspects of Halal food chain.
References:
- MS 1500:2009 – Halal Food – Production, Preparation, Handling and Storage
- “Memahami Konsep Halalan Toyyiban (Understanding the concept of Halalan Toyyiban)” – Majlis Agama Islam Selangor