Raeesah Hassim explores how the Islamic concept of tayyib challenges Muslims to look beyond whether food is merely halal, and ask whether it is truly good — for the farmer, the soil, the environment and the soul.
The question answered by a halal certificate is relatively straightforward: is this food permissible to consume? The question posed by the Quran goes further.
“O people! Eat of what is lawful and pure on earth, and do not follow the footsteps of Satan, for he is your avowed enemy.” [Quran 2:168]
For Muslims, food is not only required to be halal. It should also be tayyib — good, pure, wholesome and beneficial.
But what does tayyib mean when we look beyond what is on our plates? Can food truly be considered tayyib if the system producing it leaves farmers increasingly dependent on commercial suppliers, contributes to degraded soil or polluted waterways, and produces greater quantities of food without necessarily resolving hunger and malnutrition?
These questions are becoming increasingly important across Africa, where efforts to modernise agriculture have promised greater productivity while also prompting debate over who ultimately benefits from that transformation.
The promise of agricultural transformation
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) was established in 2006 as an African-led organisation seeking to transform agriculture across the continent. Its stated mission includes strengthening sustainable food systems, reducing hunger, improving nutrition and supporting smallholder farmers.
AGRA works with governments on agricultural policy while promoting improved seed systems, private-sector investment, market access and increased productivity. Alongside such initiatives, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) works with governments on food production, food security, agricultural development and pesticide management.
On paper, smallholder farmers remain central to this vision.
However, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), which advocates for agroecology and farmer-controlled food systems, has raised concerns about the direction of agricultural policy in several African countries and the growing influence of commercial agriculture.
In Zambia, AFSA reported that AGRA and the FAO were involved in developing the Comprehensive Agriculture Transformation Support Programme (CATSP), which emphasised commercial value chains including maize, wheat and soybeans, alongside private-sector participation and commercial farming.
During a public panel on the programme in 2023, Zambia’s then Permanent Secretary for Agriculture, Green Mbozi, said it would not necessarily be undesirable if “inefficient smallholder farmers would stop farming” and make way for more efficient commercial farmers, according to AFSA.
For critics, this highlights a tension at the heart of agricultural transformation: programmes intended to improve the lives of smallholder farmers can operate within policy environments that increasingly favour large-scale commercial production.
Seeds, yields and dependence
Central to the debate is the question of seeds and agricultural inputs.
AGRA identifies seed systems as one of its major areas of work, arguing that access to improved seeds is critical to increasing productivity, strengthening food security and raising farmers’ incomes. Its policy programmes also seek to create conditions in which private companies can invest in agriculture.
Muhammed Ebrahim, Agri Farming and Operations Manager at The Guardian Institute, who holds a BSc in Plant Breeding and is completing a diploma in Crop Production, says his concern is not agricultural technology itself, but how it can be used within commercial systems.
“They use GMO to control the market,” he said, referring to corporate agricultural interests. “It’s using terminator seeds and basically genetically modifying seeds that they can’t reproduce, so you keep buying it from them.”
Ebrahim argues that such models can leave farmers dependent on commercial suppliers rather than allowing them to retain seed from one harvest for the next.
The broader issue is one of control over the ability to produce food. Farming communities across Africa have historically saved, exchanged and adapted seeds over generations. Where farmers become increasingly reliant on externally supplied seeds, fertilisers and other inputs, questions arise over their long-term independence and resilience.
For Muslims, this also invites reflection on Islamic principles of justice, responsibility and the avoidance of exploitative dependence.
There is another question: how should agricultural success be measured?
High yields are essential. Farmers need productive crops, reliable harvests and sustainable incomes. But Ebrahim argues that an overwhelming focus on output can come at the expense of other considerations.
“The only reason chemicals are being used in agriculture is because of the high demand for crops and the pressure to get them to market quickly. It is about prioritising volume over quality — quantity over quality. That is the only reason for synthetic fertilisers,” Ebrahim said.
When yield becomes the dominant measure of success, critics warn that nutritional value, biodiversity, soil health and the long-term resilience of farming systems risk receiving less attention.
Malawi has frequently been cited in critiques of Africa’s Green Revolution model. During the period examined by critics of AGRA-supported agricultural policies, maize yields increased substantially while the number of undernourished people was reported to have risen by 61%.
The apparent contradiction illustrates an important point: producing more of a staple crop does not automatically guarantee better nutrition.
The question, therefore, is not simply whether Africa can produce more food, but whether it is producing the right food, sustainably, for the people who need it.
The cost to soil and water
Tayyib does not end at the farm gate. It also requires consideration of the soil, water and wider environment from which food comes.
Research into South African freshwater ecosystems has found that agricultural chemicals can enter non-target aquatic environments through runoff, leaching and spray drift. Some pesticides have also been associated with endocrine-disrupting effects in aquatic organisms.
The concern is therefore not limited to what happens to the crop itself, but extends to the impact agricultural practices may have on surrounding ecosystems.
Ebrahim describes the earth as an amanah — a trust from Allah (SWT) — and human beings as khulafa, or stewards, with a responsibility to care for the soil, water and natural resources upon which life depends.
Soil, he points out, is far more than simply “sand”. It is a living system containing insects, microbes, organic matter, nutrients, water and air, all interacting to sustain plant and ultimately human life.
When that system is repeatedly degraded, the consequences extend far beyond a single harvest.
Food, faith and control
The debate is also about power.
The Quran warns repeatedly against oppression and the concentration of power in the hands of those who use it unjustly:
“Indeed, Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and made its people into factions, oppressing a sector among them. Indeed, he was of the corrupters.” [Quran 28:4]
The verse speaks specifically about Pharaoh and his oppression, but its moral lesson reflects Islam’s broader condemnation of domination and injustice.
That becomes relevant when considering who controls seeds, agricultural inputs, markets and food policy — and how much influence farmers themselves retain over the systems on which their livelihoods depend.
“You’re not giving them the freedom to farm on their own,” Ebrahim said. “You’re controlling the market. You’re controlling people.”
It is partly for this reason that he believes Muslims need greater involvement in agriculture and food production.
“We focus on doctors, and engineers, and these types of professions, which are all important,” he said, “but at the end of the day, none of these professions, or none of these people can do anything if they’re not fed.”
Agriculture, in this understanding, is not merely another economic sector. It is intimately connected to food security, community independence and humanity’s responsibility towards the earth.
Returning to tayyib
For Muslims, these issues cannot be separated from the concepts of halal and tayyib.
Halal establishes what is permissible. Tayyib asks whether what we consume is good, wholesome and beneficial — encouraging Muslims to consider not merely the final product, but the system that produced it.
Ebrahim makes that distinction clearly.
“Eating halal doesn’t necessarily mean eating good,” he said. “Tayyib nourishes both the body and the soul.”
The Quranic command in Surah Al-Baqarah therefore invites Muslims to consider the entire journey of their food: the seed from which it grows, the farmer who cultivates it, the soil that sustains it, the water that nourishes it and the economic system that eventually brings it to the table.
Africa unquestionably needs greater food security. Farmers need productive crops and sustainable livelihoods. Agricultural science and technology can play an important role in achieving both.
But increasing production cannot be the only measure of success.
If agricultural transformation produces more food while leaving farmers increasingly dependent, degrading the soil, contaminating water systems or failing to address malnutrition, the Islamic concept of tayyib requires us to ask whether something important has been lost along the way.
The question, therefore, is not simply whether we are producing enough food.
It is whether we are producing it in a way that is truly good — for the farmer, the consumer, the earth and generations yet to come.
