Kopi Luwak (pronounced lu-WAH) coffee is highly prized, often fetching upwards of $200 per pound. Produced mostly in Indonesia – home to the largest Muslim population worldwide – as well as neighboring Java and Sumatra islands, but is it considered halal?

Coffee beans differ from other plants in that they must be free from impurities to qualify as permissible food items, since their journey through an animal’s digestive tract could expose them to bacteria or other physical impurities that must then be carefully washed off before being thoroughly washed and roasted to eliminate.

Islamic dietary law emphasizes cleanliness, and many Muslims question if producing kopi luwak fits within these guidelines. Furthermore, the fact that its production involves coming in contact with civet feces further complicates matters and scholars are divided over how best to approach this matter.

Some Muslims believe that once something comes into contact with najis, no matter how rigorously cleaned, its spiritual purity remains compromised regardless of any meticulous cleaning efforts undertaken to purge it of all najis. Others, however, believe a food can be considered halal if its physical cleanliness prevents any trace of najis from remaining either in its taste, smell, or appearance – in which case its consumption would be considered halal.

Indonesia’s Ulama’ Council, or Muslim scholarly body, recently made the ruling that kopi luwak is halal. A civet cat excretes coffee beans from its stomach to the forest floor where they are collected, washed and roasted before use for making coffee. According to their ruling, they note that these coffee beans enter their stomach essentially “clean”, much like how meat requires ritual washing before consumption.