Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 12-04-2017

As the Easter weekend approaches, questions have been raised about the permissibility to eat ‘hot cross buns’, Easter eggs and pickled fish during this period.

During the Easter holiday ‘hot cross buns’ and Easter eggs fill trolleys of shoppers and are consumed by the dozen including pickled fish which also makes it onto the dining table.

So can Muslims eat hot cross buns, Easter eggs and other foods that may be associated with this religious period?

According to Radio Islam’s Mufti Siraaj Desai, hot cross buns are permissible.

“Normally we take the fatwa of Hazrat Mahmood Saab Rahmatullahi when people ask him about these buns… So Hazrat Mufti Saab said, ‘there is no religious connotation to this particular thing. It has just become a normal custom to make this stuff at this particular time of the year and because you’re eating it, and you are not using it because it has some religious significance.’ So it will be halaal and permissible to buy, to sell and consume hot cross buns.”

Mufti Desai echoed a similar sentiment for Easter eggs.

“It’s a chocolate, it’s a sweet. So if children eat it, there’s nothing wrong and it will be permissible.”

As for pickled fish Mufti Desai says it’s not permissible to eat the delicacy if the intention of a person is they can’t eat meat on the occasion because they’re celebrating Easter.

“If people are saying that, ‘no we are eating fish because we want to abstain from meat; we don’t eat meat during Easter time’ that is haraam. It’s religious thing with the Christians that they don’t eat meat because they feel that Prophet Isa (AS) was crucified and that’s his flesh ‘so we don’t eat meat on this particular occasion.’

However Mufti Desai reiterates that if a person buys and eats the pickled fish with the correct intention, than it would be permissible.

“If you go into the shop, and because this thing (pickled fish) is available (or on sale), you bought it and you ate it; you’re still eating meat, you don’t have any belief about or, is not the custom that we don’t eat meat this time of the year, then it would be permissible.”