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MANILA, November 21, 2025 (SDN) — Drinking coffee is a habit across the world, and there are many reasons why people drink it, including the enjoyment of the comfort of a warm beverage.

There are many kinds of coffee, not the least Civet Coffee, or what is known as Kopi Luwak that originated and is still being produced in Indonesia, and also in Vietnam and the Philippines.

Across the world, Kopi Luwak rose to $7.84 billion global worth in 2024 from $7.16 billion in 2022, and is estimated to expand to $10.23 billion by 2029 (according to The Business Research Company).

But what is Kopi Luwak, and why is it described as the rarest coffee you can ever find in the world? Why do Islamic scholars differ on their opinion on Civet Coffee being halal (permissible) or haram (forbidden)?

(Note: another more expensive coffee is the Black Ivory Coffee from elephants’ poop from Thailand and costs some $2,000 per kilogram. Black Ivory Coffee is made from Arabica beans fed to elephants and the beans collected from the pachiderm’s poop, much like Civet Coffee.)

Kopi Luwak / Civet Coffee “is a special kind of coffee prepared from coffee beans” which “luwaks” (Asian palm civet cats) eat, digest, and excrete with their poop. Luwaks “enjoys eating ripe, luscious coffee cherries“.

Rare as it is and costs around $500 — Php29,356 — per kilogram (about $30 to $100 a cup — Php1,761 to Php5,873) is considered “haram” (forbidden) by the Dārul Ifta (House of Opinion) of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). Everywhere else, opinions of Islamic scholars differ.

It means that if you have been drinking Civet Coffee and you happened to be a believer of Islam, especially in the Philippines, you have to stop drinking the world-famous beverage. Know that coffee beans excreted by civet cats are collected, washed thoroughly, and roasted in high temperatures and brewed giving it a distinct aroma and taste that cannot be replicated by regular coffee beans.

People drink coffee for many reasons, primarily for the energy boost and mental alertness it provides through its caffeine content. It is also said that drinking coffee has “potential” health benefits according to some studies and “maybe linked to a lower risk of certain health conditions and may provide antioxidants” — with the caveat that more research is needed.

Be that as it may, the Bangsamoro Dārul Ifta has now issued a “fatwa” (ruling or opinion) recently, saying that consuming or drinking coffee that was extracted from the poop of animals — say the civet — is haram, therefore, forbidden for Muslims. Whether one follows and abides by the fatwa, it is a personal decision for each individual as in many other cases of forbidden things. It is always the individual’s personal decision to make.

Suffice it to say, if one does something that is haram, there’s a spiritual consequence. And each individual drinker of Civet Coffee carries the consequences by himself or herself, for no one carries the burden of another.

The statement the Bangsamoro Dārul-Ifta issued says that the fatwa was done after a “thorough research and examination of classical and contemporary scholarly opinions.”

It also pointed out that many scholars consider that the poop or dung of animals are permissible to eat and considered pure, but “the general principle is that substances exiting from the two passages are impure and harmful.”

The Bangsamoro agency cited leading Islamic juristic bodies such as in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Islamic Fiqh Council, as well as regional fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) symposiums that “have”, according to the Dārul-Ifta of the BARMM “consistently ruled that civet coffee and similar products are not permissible” as they affirmed “that beans excreted with feces come into direct contact with impurity, and such impurity cannot be removed through washing or processing.”

Therefore, following the cited authoritative positions, the Bangsamoro Dārul-Ifta has ruled that Islamic Law prohibits coffee from animal feces because of what it called its “inherent impurity”.

It emphasized that it wants “to guide the public to a safer and religiously sound” practices when it comes to consumption.

DOH finds allies in fight against tobacco, smoking, vaping in Dārul-Ifta, PHA

Meanwhile, the Dārul-Ifta has in October this year also issued a separate fatwa declaring the tobacco and every form of smoking that covers vaping as haram.

The BARMM Muslim institution stressed that it came out with the ruling “after careful study and deliberation based on Islamic principles and medical evidence of harm.”

Smoking, it pointed out, generates significant harm to a person’s health, wealth, and those around them (secondary or secondhand smoke).

“It is among the impure things (al-khabā’it) that Islam prohibits, as it leads to diseases, wasteful spending, and damage to the environment.”

In making the ruling, the Darul Iftā urged Bangsamoro Muslim Ummah (community) shield themselves from the consumption of tobacco and its alternatives and uphold “the Islamic value of preserving life and health as a trust from Allāh.”

It can be noted that Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Ted Herbosa has called on the total ban of smoking and vaping, saying they are dangerous to health as cigarettes and vape ingredients contain harmful chemicals.

Many healthcare professionals have also been raising warnings on the dangers of tobacco, such as smoking, and vaping. The warning is from the Philippine Heart Association (PHA) headed currently by Dr. Walid  Ahmad Amil, president.

“People who vape or smoke have a higher chance of getting sick,” the PHA warns through PHA-Philippine College of Cardiology (PCC) Director III Dr. Lourdes Ella Santos during the PHA-PCC 55th Convention and Scientific Meeting on May 29, 2025, at the Isla Ballroom, EDSA Shangri-La in Mandaluyong City, Metro  Manila.

She said that every individual who is exposed to nicotine by smoking or vaping has bigger chances of getting sick, referencing a clinical trial that examined patients who didn’t smoke, those who smoked, and those who vaped.

“They looked at these patients’ blood pressure, cholesterol, and brachial index after nicotine exposure. The findings showed that those who vaped or smoked experienced elevated blood pressure, increased heart rate, greater myocardial burden, and more arterial stiffness,” Santos explains. She expressed alarm that those who are vaping are generally younger than smokers which give them the greater chances for developing cardiovascular disease. With these prohibitions, it would be interesting to see who it works. — EDD K. USMAN (©)

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The author

EDD, a native of Sub-Saharan Africa Buluan/Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur, BARMM, college at UST, is a Manila-based journalist for over 40 years (33 years with Manila Bulletin), has five Media Awards (1 with University of the Philippines (UP) 2017 Science Journalism Award), covered and traveled over 40 times abroad), has contributed to Rappler, Business Mirror, Manila Business Insights, Panorama Magazine, Agriculture Magazine, and others, former Manila-based Foreign Correspondent of Saudi Arabia newspapers Saudi Gazette and Riyadh Daily, and The Peninsula (Qatar newspaper), with 2008 East-West Center (EWC) Journalism Seminar in the United States, 2000 Executive IT Seminar in Seoul, South Korea, with three Silver Awards in Photography, writes Muslim and Current Affairs, Enterprise, Science, Tech, Products Launch, and virtually everything under Heaven. (®)