Ruling on selling non-original food that may cause health problems
24-12-2014 | IslamWeb
Question:
In our locality, some people are making fake Zarda. The are selling fake and mixed item in place original items. These fake items creates different disease like Cancer. So whether selling this type of fake Zarda is permitted in Islam or not, or is it Haraam in islam or not.
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.
In principle, trade is lawful until there is something whereby it is rendered forbidden. Hence, it is permissible to sell this non-original item, but if it is sold as an original item while it is not original, then the sale is forbidden in this case as this is cheating and deceit. The Prophet 
said: “Whoever cheats us is not of us.” [Muslim]
Also, if it was medically proven that it causes harm by eating it, then it is forbidden to sell it as Allaah says (what means): {And do not kill yourselves [or one another].} [Quran 4:29] Also, the Prophet said: “There should be no harm nor reciprocal harm.” [Maalik]
If it is forbidden to eat it because of its harm, then it is also not permissible to sell it because if Allaah has forbidden something, He has also forbidden its price, as stated in a Hadeeth reported by Ahmad and Ibn Hibbaan.
On the other hand, if the sale of it does not involve deceit or cheating of the buyer and it is not harmful, then it remains according to the basic principle, namely, that it is permissible to sell it.