The Secretary General of the Academy, H.E. Prof. Koutoub Moustapha Sano, participated in a panel discussion entitled “The Need for International Standards in the Halal Industry” which was part of AAOIFI’s 22nd Annual Sharia Boards Conference held in Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, on Monday 22 Shawal 1445, corresponding to 29 April 2024.

His Excellency spoke about the role of Sharia Councils and Boards in financial institutions in publishing standards in the Muslim world and the stance of various countries towards them, stressing that: “There is an urgent need for the Ummah, especially its scholars, to cooperate and coordinate their jurisprudential efforts concerning issues and life developments so as to alleviate the state of intellectual crisis and knowledge dispersion in which the average Muslim lives due to contradictory fatwas and conflicting opinions on important issues”

His Excellency added that there is a dire need to “identify the infrastructure institutions for Islamic finance and the halal industry, pointing out that there is an institute specialized in setting standards and criteria for halal in the Islamic world, which is the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC), whose mission is the same as that of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Financial Institutions (AAOIFI),. This institute was created following the recommendation of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy when the Academy during its 10th session which addressed the need for an Islamic institution concerned with unifying Islamic action in the field of halal industry to carry out this task.”

His Excellency called to support the SMIIC to become like AAOIFI, which issues standards concluded by collective Ijtihad, calling on Islamic scholars and institutions to refer to these standards that have been refined, matured, and finalized after tremendous efforts and to stay away from individual Ijtihad, because individual Ijtihad in public matters is subject to criticism because public matters should not be jurisprudence except by the people specialized Ijtihad. Public matters are known as “nawazil” or contemporary issues, as they are issues that are widespread and touch the life of the Muslim person wherever he or she is. His Excellency pointed out that collective Ijtihad is more secure and safer than individual Ijtihad, which is not reliable, and in which the individual may not fully realize the dimensions of the issue without cooperation between various scholars and experts.

His Excellency explained that when the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, by establishing the SMIIC, aimed to make it an institute that keeps pace with developments and transformations in the field of food, beverages, and clothing, just as the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) keeps pace with developments in the field of Islamic finance and banking.

His Excellency also spoke about the Makkah Conference on the Halal Industry, indicating that this “industry is lucrative and the demand for it is huge, but its nature is different from other primary institutions of the Islamic economy because it has a sovereign dimension for many countries. There are legal and procedural dimensions, calling on Muslims and scholars to cooperate with all institutions involved in promoting Islamic economy in general and the Halal industry and Islamic finance and banking in particular. Furthermore, His Excellency praised Saudi Arabia, which currently chairs SMIIC’s Board of Trustees and Directors, through its commitment to the standards and criteria issued by the latter and urged all Muslim countries to adhere to its standards, especially regarding meat, medicine, clothing, food and beverages.

His Excellency called on the mujtahids (scholars who can perform Ijtihad) who may have various views on the standards and criteria issued by SMIIC or AAOIFI to inform the Sharia Councils of both institutions and convey to them their observations and comments instead of disagreeing with them through social media, which creates turmoil and a negative image of Islam and Muslims on a sensitive issue such as halal. His Excellency justified that the current reality of the Ummah does not call for more disagreement and division but for more cooperation and communication.

At the end of his speech, His Excellency expressed his hope that SMIIC will benefit from AAOIFI’s successful experiences and model, and called on everyone to present their views and opinions on how to promote these institutions, develop their abilities and skills, and provide them with the necessary support.