{"id":3559,"date":"2023-09-06T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fatwa-tt.com\/?p=3559"},"modified":"2023-09-08T16:18:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T20:18:22","slug":"is-the-meat-slaughtered-by-christians-and-jews-permissible-saying-bismillah-and-eat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fatwa-tt.com\/index.php\/is-the-meat-slaughtered-by-christians-and-jews-permissible-saying-bismillah-and-eat\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the meat slaughtered by Christians and Jews permissible? Saying Bismillah and eat?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Question:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If a Jew\/Christian slaughter a chicken fulfilling the conditions of islamic slaughter is it permissible to consume by muslims? There was a video circulating on trini muslims facebook group in which a hadith was quoted where the prophet said bismillah ate meat from a jewish woman this caused some controversy. Can we eat kosher meat as well?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Answer:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Islam is a comprehensive religion guiding Muslims through every facet of life. Since food is an important part of daily life, food laws carry a special significance. Islamic philosophy propounds that the food which man consumes affects not only his physical constitution but also his moral character and spiritual upliftment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Why is it so important for a Muslim to strictly consume halal?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Consuming Halal is an order of Allah and an essential part of the Islamic faith. Allah has repeatedly emphasised the consumption of Halal in The Quraan. The following are some examples of such verses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>1.\u201cO Messengers, eat from the pure foods and work righteousness\u201d (Holy Quran 23:51)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2.\u201cO you who have believed, eat from the pure things which we have provided you\u201d (Holy Quran 2:172)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>3.\u201cO mankind, eat from whatever is on earth (that is) lawful and pure\u201d (Holy Quran 2:168)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>4.\u201cSo eat of that (meat) upon which Allah\u2019s name has been mentioned, if you are believers in His verses\u201d (Holy Quran 6:118)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Allah Ta\u2019ala has commanded us in the Holy Quraan to eat only that which is Halaal and to stay away from that which is Haraam. Thereafter Allah Ta\u2019ala commands the Prophets and the believers to do good actions. By eating pure Halaal foods, a person is able to easily do good actions and stay away from doing evil actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By being careless about the dietary laws of Islam a believer puts himself in sin and difficulties both in this world and the world hereafter. In this world, due to consuming Haraam, he deprives himself from having any of his good deeds and Duas accepted by his Creator while in the hereafter he suffers the greatest loss ever imaginable i.e. refusal from being admitted to Paradise. All this is confirmed in the following Ahadith:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" type=\"1\">\n<li>Abu Hurairah (RA) said: The Messenger of Allah (<strong>\ufdfa<\/strong>) said, \u201cO people! Allah is Pure and, therefore, accepts only that which is pure. Allah has commanded the believers as He has commanded His Messengers by saying: \u2018O Messengers! Eat of the good things, and do good deeds.\u2019 (23:51) And He said: \u2018O you who believe (in the Oneness of Allah)! Eat of the lawful things that We have provided you\u2026\u201d\u2018 (2:172). Then He (<strong>\ufdfa<\/strong>) made a mention of the person who travels for a long period of time, his hair is disheveled and covered with dust. He lifts his hand towards the sky and thus makes the supplication: \u2018My Rubb! My Rubb!\u2019 But his food is unlawful, his drink is unlawful, his clothes are unlawful and his nourishment is unlawful, how can, then his supplication be accepted?\u201d (Muslim)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>S\u2019ad RA relates: Allah\u2019s messenger <strong>\ufdfa<\/strong> said \u201cO S\u2019ad purify your food (and as a result) you will become one who\u2019s supplications are accepted. I swear by He in whose hands the soul of Muhammad <strong>\ufdfa<\/strong> lies, verily a servant (of Allah) tosses a Haram morsel in his stomach (due to which) no deed is accepted from him for 40 days\u201d (Tabarani)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Slaughter of the people of the Book (Jews and Christians)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani states: In order for the animals slaughtered by the people of the book to become lawful, it is necessary that the slaughterer be a follower of either the Christian or Jewish religion and that he believe in the fundamental teachings of that religion, even if these teachings are contrary to the teachings of Islim, <strong>e.g. <\/strong>their belief in trinity, atonement, and the distorted versions of the Gospel and Torah. It is not sufficient for a person to have a Christian name or for him to be counted as a Christian in the official census in order to establish that he is from the people of the book. Instead, his beliefs must be similar to their beliefs. There are many people today &#8211; especially in western countries \u2013 who have Christian names and are sometimes recorded in the census as being Christians, but in reality they are materialists or atheists who do not even believe that there is a Creator of this universe, let alone having faith in the other Christian beliefs. In reality, these people mock at all religions. They are not Christians and it is not permissible to consider them to be people of the book. This means that the animals slaughtered by them will be unlawful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The correct view is that the animals slaughtered by the people of the book will only become lawful for us when they are slaughtered according to the Islamic way by cutting the vessels and draining out the blood. The animal will be unlawful if it is strangled, killed by a violent blow or slaughtered in any other manner which is contrary to Islamic law. The strong view which is supported by clear proofs is that the animals slaughtered by the people of the book will only become lawful if they observe all the conditions for slaughter which are mentioned in the Quran and the Ahadith including taking the name of Allah (or God.) This was the method of slaughter which was prevalent amongst them at the time when Allah revealed the verse which made it lawful to eat the animals which they slaughter<a href=\"#_ftn1\" id=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mufti Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf mentions; Many people assume that the United States\u2014and, for that matter, Canada, the UK, and many other European countries\u2014are Christian nations. This is erroneous. Although many of the inhabitants of these countries profess to be Christian, this affiliation of theirs does not extend much past a personal or perhaps communal level. On the state level, these countries are openly secular, promote separation of church and state, and would hardly accept being labeled Christian nations. Some Muslim scholars from abroad, many of whom are not accurately informed of the religious composition of the US, sometimes pass the&nbsp;<em>fatwa&nbsp;<\/em>that the meat in the United States is lawful, citing that the country is Christian. No doubt, meat slaughtered by a Christian or Jew in accordance with the injunctions of their scriptures cannot be considered impermissible, as Allah has made it lawful in the Qur\u2019an: \u201cAnd the food of those who have been given the Book is permitted to you\u201d (Qur\u2019an 5:5). However, carelessly purchasing or eating meat from any source in the US with the excuse of being in a Christian country and thus eating the meat of the People of the Book (<em>Ahl al-Kitab<\/em>) is a gross error in judgment born out of ignorance of the true circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When purchasing meat from a regular grocery store, it is generally impossible to learn whether the slaughterer was a Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Baha\u2019i, atheist, or, for argument\u2019s sake, Muslim; and even if it is theoretically possible to find out, the informational costs and bureaucratic barriers are too prohibitive for it to be feasible. If we then make the venturesome assumption that the slaughterer is a Christian or a Jew, the adherence of these, especially the former, to the laws of slaughter laid down in their scriptures is tenuous, as a few moments\u2019 examination of practicing Christians and Jews will show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In general, we must be wary when confronting an issue in which uncertainty clouds the path to finding the sure ruling; we should err on the side of caution in such affairs. The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, \u201cLeave what puts you in doubt in favor of what does not\u201d (<em>Sunan al-Tirmidhi<\/em>), cautioning Muslims of the doubtful. From another hadith, we learn a great wisdom behind this cautiousness that every Muslim ought to exhibit: \u201cWhat is lawful is clear, and what is unlawful is clear. And in between the two are doubtful matters [whose rulings] many people do not know. He who guards against the doubtful safeguards his religion and honor, and he who falls into the doubtful falls into the unlawful, just as a shepherd who grazes his flock around a preserve will likely soon graze them in it. Indeed, every king has a preserve, and the preserve of Allah are the things he has declared unlawful\u201d (<em>Sahih al-Bukhari<\/em>). Therefore, abstaining from something whose permissibility cannot be established is, with little or no exception, the best path to take<a href=\"#_ftn2\" id=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Say Bismillah and eat. <\/strong>. <strong>A common misconception and its answer;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let us now turn to a Hadith in Bukhari that is often misquoted by many people to justify their consuming of Haraam. The hadith is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt has been narrated from Aisha, (RA), that some persons said to Nabi <strong>\ufdfa<\/strong> \u2018People bring to us meat. We know not whether the name of Allah Ta\u2019ala has been taken (upon its slaughter) or not? Nabi replied, \u2018You people say Bismillah and eat it.\u2019 Aisha, (RA), says, \u2018the people referred to (in this Hadith) were new Muslims.\u2019\u201d (Bukhari)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is clear that the slaughterers were Muslims, not disbelievers. This is further elucidated by Imam Malik (RA)\u2019s narration (of the same Hadith) where the addition of, \u201cthis was in the beginning of Islam.\u201d (Fathul Bari)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The actual meaning of this Hadith, as understood by similar narrations is that one should not entertain unfounded doubts about a Muslim that he would neglect to mention the name of Allah upon his slaughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is what is understood by the context of the Hadith since the answer of Nabi <strong>\ufdfa<\/strong> to the question was, \u2018Say Bismillah and eat.\u2019 It is as though they (questioners) were told, \u2018That is not your concern, rather what should concern you is to consume it (wholesomely in the Sunnah manner) by saying Bismillah before partaking thereof.\u201d (Fathul Bari)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong> Can we trust others\u2019 word on whether something is Halal?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When there is \u2018reasonable\u2019 fear that a particular meat is possibly Haraam \u2013 or when it is generally the case that meat labelled \u2018Halal\u2019 is dubious\u2013then it would be one\u2019s duty to make sure. Nowadays is not only \u2018reasonable\u2019 fear that the meat labelled as Halal is possibly Haraam. Rather, based on the research and investigation of many individuals and organisations, the current situation is even worse \u2013 that is there is \u2018extreme\u2019 fear that a particular meat labelled as Halal may be Haraam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Therefore, one must not take another\u2019s word at face value; rather it will be one\u2019s duty to ensure that the meat is Halal, whether individually or through an organisation that one trusts and who would give this assurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In our times, it becomes even more important to ensure the meat and poultry consumed is genuinely Halal due to the excessive deceit, cheat and false labelling of Halaal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam said, \u2018Leave what which puts you in doubt for what does not put you in doubt. For certainly the truth brings tranquility while falsehood sows doubt.'(Sahih Muslim 2518)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>And Allah Ta\u2019\u0101la Knows Best.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Mufti Arshad Ali<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Darul Iftaa, Jaamia Madinatul Uloom (Trinidad)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fatwa-tt.com\"><strong>www.fatwa-tt.com<\/strong><\/a><strong> \/<\/strong><a href=\"www.jaamia.net\"><strong>www.jaamia.net<\/strong><\/a><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" id=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> The Islamic laws of Animal slaughter by <a>Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" id=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> Essay on Zabiha meat Madness by Mufti Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: If a Jew\/Christian slaughter a chicken fulfilling the conditions of islamic slaughter is it permissible to consume<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,281,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-consumables","category-contemporary-law","category-featured-posts","category-spiritual"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatwa-tt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatwa-tt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatwa-tt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatwa-tt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatwa-tt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fatwa-tt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatwa-tt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatwa-tt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatwa-tt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatwa-tt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}