We have a restaurant in our campus owned by a Sikh with a Muslim cook. I want to know whether we can eat chicken there if the cook as well as the owner tell us that it is Halaal. I have heard that Sikhs never eat Halaal meat.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

If the Muslim cook is a trustworthy person and informs you that the meat is lawful, i.e. the animal has been slaughtered according to Islamic rites, then it is permissible to eat that meat, and the fact that the owner of the restaurant is not a Muslim does not harm you.

However, if you know that the cook is not a trustworthy person or shows signs of dissolute people, the matter which spoils his trustworthiness, and in the country where you live most animals are not slaughtered according to Islamic rites, then we consider that it is not permissible to eat that meat according to the principle [that animals are not slaughtered according to Islamic rites] or as is common in that country. As regards the testimony of the non-Muslim that the meat is lawful, it should not be taken into account and it is not permissible to eat the meat based this testimony. The jurists are of the view that the testimony of a non-Muslim or a dissolute person is not accepted in matters pertaining to religion.

Allaah knows best.