porcinophobia?

PUTRAJAYA: The Islamic Develop­ment Department (Jakim) will use a locally-produced pig DNA detector to determine if products are free from pig elements.

Its director-general Datuk Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz said the detector was created by researchers from Universiti Putra Malaysia and could identify pig DNA even if trace amounts are as minute as 0.001 nanograms.

Wan Mohamad added that as the pig DNA detector was mobile. It could be used by Jakim’s enforcement officers during checks and raids.

That's a very short and sweet news from The Star.

Probably a welcomed invention, since it will help the religiously-pious Muslims to keep eyes wide open for non-halal stuffs.

Perhaps, they can invent something later to detect whether the cash that they're receiving from the Penang's State government were from 'non-halal' sources.

However, some inventions shouldn't be taken into consideration at face value. Everything comes with a certain value of false positive and false negative. I wonder what are the values for those 'falses'.

Secondly, I'm no scientist but DNA are just fragments of deoxyribonucleic acids and in some sequences, it will make a pig, in another sequence it will procreate human. But they at times will go into fragments in midst of procreating. And those fragments will have great similarities across few species.

And some DNA can even go into combination. For instance, from H1N1, certain parts pig DNA, certain parts avian DNA and some parts human DNA.

Thirdly, the worries about Muslims rejecting certain drugs or blood transfusions for life-saving procedures should really be thrown out of the window.

Islam in its own uniqueness, do not lead Muslims to doom.

Firman Allah Taala bermaksud:

Dan Dia tidak menjadikan kamu menanggung sesuatu keberatan dan susah payah di dalam perkara agama.

(Surah al-Hajj: Ayat 78).

Firman Allah Taala bermaksud:

Allah tidak memberatkan seserang melainkan apa yang terdaya olehnya.

(Surah al-Baqarah: Ayat 286).

Firman Allah Taala bermaksud:

Tetapi barangsiapa yang dalam keadaan terpaksa (memakannya) sedang ia tidak menginginkannya dan tidak (pula) melampaui batas, maka tidak ada dosa baginya. Sesungguhnya Allah Maha Pengampun lagi Maha Penyayang.

(Surah al-Baqarah: Ayat 173).

In Islam, there's darurat.

For a treatment to be of 'darurat', 3 criteria must be fulfilled:

1. There's a danger without this treatment
2. There are no halal substitutes for it.
3. Confirmation from a Muslim doctor with good i’tikad (trusted in practice and spiritually)

I used to give advise to patients requiring porcine-based medication for their heart disease without fulfillment of the 3rd criteria. No wonder, my advice, no matter how lengthy and easy to understand, was rejected always, until a fellow Muslim colleague came along and further convinced the patients.

Similarly, in Buddhism, there are precepts and the 5th precepts stated in the simplest way as 'Do not take intoxicants' or

But are medications classified as intoxicants?

By strict translation, the Fifth Precept of Buddhism, translated from the Pali Canon, is "I undertake the training rule to abstain from fermented and distilled intoxicants which are the basis for heedlessness."

Violating the precept requires an intoxicant, an intention to take an intoxicant, the activity of ingesting the intoxicant, and the actual ingestion of the intoxicant. Taking medication containing alcohol, opiates or other intoxicants for genuine medical reasons does not count, nor does eating food flavored with a small amount of liquor. Otherwise, Theravada Buddhism considers the Fifth Precept to be a clear prohibition of drinking.