Trying to reduce the consumption of food served at a wedding

22-5-2012 | IslamWeb

Question:

ASAK, During a discussion between friends, I took a strong objection to the viewpoint of some. The topic was "INNAMAL AMAALU BINIYYAAT" (ACTIONS ARE BUT INTENTIONS). A few years back home in India this was overheard that "the cook gave advice to the host of a wedding day dinner that if we add a certain ingredient called "PHITAKRI" to the dish being served the consumption will be less, this way we can cover a large number of guests. When I narrated this incident, a friend of mine said "the host might have taken this measure because of his inablity to host a large gathering, and another one said " nowdays the bride's father is being asked to arrange dinner for atleast 600 to 800 guests, so he has no choice except to act on the advice of the cook. My personal contention is that since there is lack of purification in the intentions of the host this is not permissible, and it is against the teachings of Islam, regret to add that this way you are deceiving people. I need your clarification on tbe subject please.

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Answer:

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, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

It appears – Allaah knows best – that it is permissible to add this substance to food if it is pure and not forbidden to eat provided it does not cause any harm especially if it is for the benefit of the served food as we are ordered by the Sharee’ah not to be extravagant and to be moderate when eating food and even to eat only a little amount. However, if this substance causes any harm or that it is impure, then it is forbidden to add it because food is respected (in Islam) and because it is forbidden to consume what is impure and because the Prophet said: "There should be no harm and no reciprocal harm.” [Ahmad]

Allaah Knows best.