Understanding more HMA / HIC stamped meats, are they halal?

Bismillahi Ta’ala

Walaikum Assalam Warahmatullah

At the outset, yes, we do endorse HMA (as well as HIC) in their certification standards at this time. This stance has not changed.

However, reviewing the article quoted, we feel that your understanding of the article is incorrect.

For one, the article does not establish HMA’s stance of accepting machine slaughtered chicken. Instead, HMA mentions in one of their Frequently Asked Questions, “As there may be some scholars who believe that machine slaughtered chicken is fine for halal consumption, our observation of multiple machine slaughtered poultry abattoirs dictates that blessing each bird and cutting them properly with the mechanical rotating blade as per the dictates of our sacred texts is not possible due to the speed of the line. It is for this reason HMA does not accept this procedure.” (https://hmacanada.org/faqs/)

Secondly, the article in question (viz a viz the selected text) is indicating toward a fatwa penned by Mufti Taqi Usmani Saheb to an inquiry mentioning a visit to “Maple Lodge Slaughter House” in Dec. 1994 in Toronto, Canada.

Your highlighted/quoted text “If the conditions for a valid slaughter are fulfilled (regardless of whether it is hand-slaughter or machine-slaughter), the animal would be lawful (halal) to consume. However, if these conditions are not fulfilled, it will render the animal unlawful (haram)” does not mean that machine-slaughter is acceptable without any restrictions. Rather, the text indicates that the Shar’i conditions for validity of zabiha needs to be fulfilled whether the chicken is slaughtered through hand or through mechanical methods.

While addressing the “Maple Lodge Slaughter House”, Mufti Taqi Usmani had started his answer stating, “As I had explained earlier, after my visit to the Maple Lodge chicken slaughter house, the way in which slaughter of chicken is carried out is not acceptable.”

Mufti Taqi Usmani Saheb reviewed their procedure of slaughter and highlighted the concerns which rendered their machine-slaughter of chickens to be invalid. These issue were:

1. Throat of the chicken was cut by a machine while a Muslim standing nearby recited the Tasmiya
2. Recitation of Tasmiya did not coincide with the slaughter of each and every chicken
3. Machine went on slaughtering without any break while the person recites the tasmiya went onto a break.

Addressing the above three issues Mufti Saheb recommended them to move from machine slaughter to manual slaughter.

This does indicate that should the machine-slaughter fulfill the conditions, then the slaughter could be acceptable in Shariah. We too have stated this much in our fatwa as well (coincidentally also addressing the Maple Lodge Farms). We also believe that the current demands of the market can easily be fulfilled through upgrades to same old manual hand-slaughter methods just as advised by Mufti Taqi Saheb. But, this will surely be at some additional cost of operations to the companies which will reduce their profit margins. The companies could then either hike the price up, or absorb those costs for lower profit margin to themselves. However, without actual figures we cannot discuss their profit margins. Nonetheless, we have still addressed possibility of machine-slaughter for the industry and some corrections they would need to make to be acceptable for our endorsements.

Please read through our fatwa in detail, with some of those recommendations for the poultry industry to revise their methodology to become in line with acceptable form of machine-slaughter. https://fatwa.ca/chfca-halal-certification-machine-slaughter-kirkland-chicken-and-maple-lodge-zabiha-halal/

Wallahu A’lam

And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Mufti Faisal al-Mahmudi