September-October . 2021 | @ Halal
Halal Health
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No issues with halal status
Covid-19 vaccination in Malaysia is both permissible and compulsory
BY FATIHAH MANAF
MALAYSIA ’ S daily Covid- 19 cases have gone above or slightly below the 20,000 mark for the past few weeks . Despite this worrying number , Klang Valley has slowly shown a decreasing trend in its new daily cases .
This may be due to the vaccination programme conducted by the federal and State governments .
Whilst vaccination might have shown its effectiveness in reducing the number of cases , or at least individuals ’ symptoms , there are still a few people who refuse to get vaccinated because of doubts about its halal status .
Prof Dr Irwan Mohd Subri , Director of Institute of Fatwa and Halal ( iFFAH ) at Islamic Science University of Malaysia ( USIM ), made it clear that vaccines under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme were harus ( permissible ) and wajib ( compulsory ).
He explained the ruling for Covid-19 vaccination is generally permissible but is made compulsory to selected groups such as frontliners . This fatwa , decided by the Muzakarah Committee , consisting of Muftis and experts , was made after the committee members were satisfied with the Ministry of Health ’ s ( MoH ) presentations .
Pandemic as darurat situation
Dr Irwan argued that most of the time , the refusal to get vaccinated was more of a safety issue and rarely of Fiqh concerns . However , some people recently touched on the vaccine ’ s halal status and questioned Covid-19 pandemic ’ s darurat ( emergency ) situation .
“ In general , we argue that as long as the vaccine is made from halal ingredients , the product is halal ,” said Dr Irwan , further highlighting that vaccines available in Malaysia are halal and permissible .
“ Even in the case where the ingredients are from haram sources , the vaccines have gone through processes that make it pure and clean from the original sources . Sometimes we use this istihalah argument , and sometimes we use darurat or hajat ( need ).”
In explaining the darurat situation , he first gave an example of an event where someone
was lost in a jungle for days and had no access to halal food .
“ This is considered darurat . In such a situation , it is permissible for that person to eat haram food such as pork .
“ Even in the situation where there is only one life involved , Islam has given us this kind of rukhsah ( leniency ). What more during this pandemic that involves thousands of deaths .
“ Most people only look at darurat as a situation that causes death but often forgot that darurat also refers to a situation that can cause critical conditions .”
Most people only look at darurat as a situation that causes death but often forgot that darurat also refers to a situation that can cause critical conditions .”
Prof Dr Irwan Mohd Subri
Ruling on vaccine is based on dalil
Often people would use Maqasid Shariah of protecting one ’ s life to argue about the importance of vaccines . As much as this would help to promote vaccination efforts , Dr Irwan said that amateurs and not experts would usually use such an argument .
“ In producing a ruling , for example on vaccines , we will refer to dalil and not Maqasid Shariah ,” he said , further adding that the primary sources of dalil are the Quran and hadith .
“ So what is the dalil on the halalness of Covid-19 vaccines ? Is the ruling mentioned in the Quran or hadith ? If there are specific dalil ( from Quran and hadith ), we will use them .
“ There are also secondary sources for dalil , such as ijma ’, qiyas , istihsan , sadd al-dharai and maslahah mursalah .
“ Some people think if there are no rulings in the Quran or hadith , then that ’ s it . I ’ m afraid that ’ s not right . We can use secondary sources to prove it . So , who will discuss and refer to this dalil ? Of course , the Muftis , ulama ’ and Islamic scholars .”
Ruling on side effects from medical treatment
Based on his study , he explained that the side effects caused by medical treatment , including vaccination as a prevention measure , will be investigated first .
“ If anything happens from the treatment , such as deaths or disabilities , we will look at the negligence aspect .”
He said that when a specialist follows the correct procedure during treatment but still causes disabilities or death of the patient , the specialist is not responsible for the death or disabilities .
“ The government , or hospital , however , holds the responsibility for that .
“ Second situation is a doctor , who is not a specialist , carries out an unauthorised treatment and it causes the death of his patient . In this case , the doctor will be held accountable for what he did .
“ The third situation , a specialist , while doing his treatment , he is being careless or doing other things , such as drinking or smoking . This person will be responsible for the death or anything that happens to the patient .”
When asked if syak ( doubt ), can be a valid reason in refusing the medical treatment , Dr Irwan said : “ To answer your question , no , syak cannot be the basis of hukum , it should be at least strong zhan ( perception ) which is near to yaqin ( certain ).”
“ To relate with the vaccination , are our Islamic scholars when deciding the ruling , really 100 per cent confirmed that the process of the vaccine production is from halal sources ? We would not know that as we are not the producers .
“ We are only Islamic scholars . So , we ’ re only on the zhan level after listening to presentations made by experts . Yaqin can only be achieved if we are directly involved in the field , such as pharmacists , medical practitioners or pharmaceutical companies . For Islamic scholars , that will be based on zhan .”
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