Approximately 2 billion Muslims live in the world today. That amounts to ¼ of the world population. Halal and Tayyib morsel is an indispensable matter of faith for a Muslim. Seeking, spreading and practicing Halal morsel is an obligation for Muslims.
When we check Jew population, we encounter almost 15 million Jews and for such a small population, companies are struggling to obtain kosher certificates worldwide. Haven’t should they primarily aim for 2 billion’s Halal? However, we cannot observe such kind of a tendency. Why? Because of Muslims who do not hold or even care about their right to consume Halal. Whether the product is Halal or Haram, who cares? Is it possible to describe a “Muslim” like this?
What can be done to assist Muslims, who want to emancipate themselves from the turmoil of the century, in the search of Halal morsel? Great minds think alike. Raising awareness among the population and demanding from producers/markets to follow Halal practices should be the method of Muslims.
Is it an individual obligation (Fard al-Ayn) of a Muslim to seek and consume Halal products? Then, why and how Muslims pass over this issue with non-valid excuses? It is not possible to easily answer this question.
GIMDES has, Alhamdulillah, founded in 2005 and the first certified product has entered into the markets in 2009. Following this, Muslims have started to complain that they cannot find Halal-certified products on the market shelves. Following this request, we have arranged meetings with various market managers, which we interpret as prone to Muslims, in order to convince them to open a special section for Halal-certified products. Although they welcomed this offer, after a point, they decided not to continue because of increasing inquiries by the consumer regarding Halalness of other products that are not placed in that special section.
Having experienced this situation, we have initiated Halal Dunya Markets (HDM) Project to establish a market chain in which only Halal certified products are sold. These markets are owned by volunteer entrepreneurs and audited by GIMDES. Since that day, this project has been in order and serving our Muslim brothers and sisters. Though it is difficult to stand against the market chains with ten thousands of branches, Alhamdulillah, they continue their service for almost ten years with the help of Allah (SWT).
LET’S DECLARE A MOBILIZATION
“Then eat of what Allah has provided for you [which is] Halal and Tayyib. And be grateful for the favor of Allah, if it is [indeed] Him that you worship.” (Surah an-Nahl, 114)
We call our brothers and sisters to insist on their demands from markets, that are closer to their neighborhood, to bring Halal-certified products on their market shelves since there are great complaints stating the difficulty of reaching these small numbered HDMs. Through this way, we would be following another very important order of Allah (SWT) which is called “Amr bil maroof nahi anil munkar” [ordering the good and prohibiting the bad] while seeking and consuming Halal.
