Pomegranate (Rumman) — Three Mentions in the Quran, One Place in the Barakah Pill

Three āyāt

Pomegranate — rumman — is mentioned three times in the Holy Quran. We use the Sahih International translation throughout this piece, verbatim.

The first reference appears in Surah Al-An'am (6:99), in the context of Allah's signs in creation: a passage describing the rain that brings forth vegetation, gardens of grapes, olives, and pomegranates — "similar yet varied." The second reference is in the same Surah, four āyāt later (6:141), in a passage on the agricultural bounty granted to humankind: gardens trellised and untrellised, palm trees and crops of varied taste, olives and pomegranates — again, "similar and dissimilar."

The third mention is in Surah Ar-Rahman (55:68), in the section describing the gardens of Paradise: "In both of them are fruit and palm trees and pomegranates." The verse sits inside the refrain "fa-bi-ayyi ālā'i rabbikumā tukadhdhibān" — "so which of the favours of your Lord will you deny?" — repeated thirty-one times across the Surah.

Pomegranate is the most directly Quran-anchored single botanical in The Barakah Pill. Black seed has its place in the hadith tradition (Sahih al-Bukhari 5688 and Sahih Muslim 2215) — but pomegranate sits in the Quran itself, three times, across two Surahs.

Why we added it on 2026-05-24

When we ratified v4.0 of the formulation on 2026-05-24 we ran the candidate formulation through a four-lens adversarial critique: a senior pharmacognosist, a Hanafi-leaning scholar, an ASA/CAP compliance officer, and a sceptical CPG investor. The pomegranate addition emerged from the scholar's lens as a strengthening of the formulation's Sunnah anchoring — replacing maca, which we removed on UK regulatory grounds — and was independently validated by the pharmacognosist on the basis of the published research on standardised punicalagin extracts.

We chose pomegranate over a dozen other candidates because it is the only one that gives us a Quranic anchor of this depth without forcing any therapeutic or function claim. Pomegranate's place in The Barakah Pill is heritage-anchored, not mechanism-anchored. We will say nothing about what pomegranate does for the human body that the published research does not establish under the GB Nutrition and Health Claims Register, and the Register currently authorises no health claim for pomegranate.

The extract we specify

our clinically characterised pomegranate extract by is our preferred branded raw material. is named in brief as a validated alternative. Both are extracts of Punica granatum fruit standardised to a minimum of its principal active compound (punicalagins) — the principal polyphenolic compound class in pomegranate — verified by HPLC, with the ratio of punicalagins to ellagic acid specified to detect the adulteration that is common in cheaper pomegranate-extract supply chains.

At the current 60×2 capsule format, the daily dose is 250 mg. Under the 90×3 full-clinical format that activates if all three Gate 1 validation steps pass, the daily dose increases to 400 mg.

We will not use a generic non-standardised pomegranate powder for an ingredient that carries this much narrative weight. The supplier brief is unusually specific because the ingredient is unusually meaningful.

The halal cert chain — what we are waiting on

The halal certification of pomegranate raw fruit is not in question. The question is whether the specific concentrated extract we use is halal-certified at the extract level, not just at the fruit level. Specifically: we require ethanol residue below 50 ppm per certificate of analysis (stricter than the Halal Food Authority's standard 0.5% threshold, to address cross-acceptability with the Shia jurisprudential position); we require full carrier disclosure (the maltodextrin used in spray-drying must be maize or tapioca derived, not wheat); and we require a halal certificate from the supplier that covers the extract specifically.

That cert chain is in progress with HFA. We expect a written ruling within four to six weeks of the pre-enquiry.

If the cert chain confirms cleanly, pomegranate stays in the v4.0 formulation at the level used in the published research (60×2 spec) or 400 mg (90×3 spec if Gate 1 passes). If it does not, our contingency is one of two paths: downgrade the dose to 150 mg using a different supplier whose cert chain does confirm, or remove pomegranate from v4.0 entirely and reintroduce it in v4.1 once a cleaner supply chain is available. We will publish whichever way the decision goes, on the dates the decisions are made.

We mention all of this because the alternative — staying silent and hoping the decision goes our way before launch — is not how we want to run this brand. If you have read this piece and you are a Muslim adult thinking about purchasing The Barakah Pill, you should know what we know about the ingredients before they reach you.

What we do not claim about pomegranate

The pomegranate-extract supplement category in the West tends to make claims about cardiovascular support, blood-flow support, and male sexual-function support, citing a small set of clinical studies on standardised punicalagin extracts. We are not going to make those claims. The GB Nutrition and Health Claims Register currently authorises no health claim for pomegranate, and the published research is not yet developed enough to support a function claim without venturing into territory the Advertising Standards Authority would not uphold and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency would treat as a borderline product issue.

Pomegranate is in The Barakah Pill because it is rumman, and because it is mentioned three times in the Holy Quran. We will say nothing about what it does. We will simply say it is there, that we have sourced it carefully, and that we have specified it precisely.

A note on translation

We use the Sahih International translation in all consumer-facing copy because of its widespread accessibility and its faithful rendering of the Arabic without interpretive elaboration. The translation of Surah Ar-Rahman 55:68 used above — "In both of them are fruit and palm trees and pomegranates" — is the verbatim Sahih International rendering. We do not paraphrase Quranic translations in any consumer-facing material at any point.

If you read the Arabic, the word in question is rumman (رُمَّان). Across all three āyāt the form is identical.

What is next

Pomegranate joins black seed, saffron, and fenugreek in the Sunnah-and-Quran-anchored tier of the formulation. The other eight ingredients — L-citrulline, our clinically characterised pine bark extract, Panax ginseng, our clinically characterised ashwagandha extract, zinc, vitamin D3, magnesium, and boron — are anchored to the modern published research, not to the prophetic medical tradition. Both tiers are essential. The Barakah Pill is a brand built at the seam between them.

When v4.0 ships, the pomegranate will be there. We are writing this piece in May 2026 so that by the time you read it on the journal page, you will already know why.

— The Founders