Halal Personal Care Products

Most of us think about the word Halal being related only to the things we eat. For most Muslims, Halal has no relation whatsoever to personal care products. It is important to note that a huge number of personal care products including but not limited to toothpaste, shampoo, body wash, all sorts of creams etc., include gelatin derived from animal sources. As Muslims we cannot use these products as they are a source of impurity (albeit due to very small quantities of impure substances).

Me and my wife recently ordered a Burt’s Bees head to toe starter kit from ebay. We had already looked up the products on the Burts Bees Website and found that they used mostly natural ingredients in their products. The peculiar thing about Burts Bees products is that almost all of their products contain Bees Wax. You can have a look at the Burt’s Bees head-to-toe starter kit on ebay  by clicking here. Please note that this is an affiliate link.

My wife emailed Burts Bees to check whether they use any ingredients from animal sources. They were nice enough to reply and I quote

“We use the following animal bi-products

Bee Bi-products: beeswax, honey, royal jelly
Lanolin: from sheep’s wool…extracted after wool has been sheared.

All ingredients can be found on our products as well as on our website.
If you have any additional questions please feel free to contact us by
reply email.”

As far as I know none of these ingredients is Haram which means that we can use the Burts Bees products. Me and my wife are quite happy to have found a good personal care products company which has suitable products for Muslims.

I think Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA) should negotiate with Burts Bees and have them certified Halal.

Halal Food USA: We Are What We Eat

I came to the United States as a student few years back. Being a Muslim, I had to research about halal food availability. Remember, eating Halal is just another way of purifying yourself because what you eat is You! It is similar to lots of other religious acts whose sole purpose is to purify. Charity (Zakah) purifies your wealth, Prayer (Salah) purifies yourbody and soul. Pilgrimage (Hajj) wipes off all the sins that you have committed, of course if done with the right intention.

Internet was a great help regarding this matter, as some mosques have lists of Halal foods that one could buy at local stores such as Wal-mart. However, these lists are by no means comprehensive.

Most of the Muslims think of Halal only in terms of food and forget about it when it comes to cosmetics and other body care products especially tooth paste. I found out that most of the tooth pastes for instance, have glycerin among other ingredients. That is almost sure to be from animal (not slaughtered in the proper way) sources and thus not suitable for usage by Muslims.

After a bit of research, I found a tooth paste from Toms of Maine, which is totally natural and has no ingredients whatsoever from animal sources. All of this sounds too difficult to dig deep into and find out. The good news is that now it has been made very easy with websites such as Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America .

This website is a great source of information regarding Halal products in a lot of categories. Moreover, they have a Halal digest which includes updates on what new companies have been certified by the council. I was surprised and pleased to see the Halal sign on a cheese product in my local Wal-mart supercenter. Please remember that while this website lists a lot of products and provides very good information, it is by no means the “complete Halal Food Repository”. The aim of these guys is to spread awareness among the people and to certify products as Halal.

This website is a great learning source for all kinds of ingredients. It gives authentic information as to what is not a Halal ingredient and why? Most of the people think that products other than meat have nothing wrong with them. Through my own experience I have found out Potato chips products, sauces, milk, juices etc. that have a tiny ingredient which is enough to exclude it from the Halal category.

I recommend all the American Muslims to take advantage of this website and know about what they are eating.