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d. By prohibiting the flesh of a dead animal to human beings, Allâh in His Mercy provides source of food
to animals and birds, who, in the words of the Qur‘ân, constitute an ummah (nation) like themselves. The
truth of this is demonstrated by the fact that the carcasses of animals lying out in the open are devoured
by birds and animals.
e. This prohibition encourages the owner of an animal to guard it from disease and malnutrition lest it die
and be wasted. Accordingly, in the case of disease, he will be quick to seek a cure for it or will hasten to
slaughter the animal.
The Prohibition of Flowing Blood
2. The second prohibition relates to flowing or liquid blood. (It is not prohibited to eat the blood which
remains in the flesh of the slaughtered animal after one has done his best to remove it. (Trans.)) Ibn
Abbas was asked about the spleen and he replied, “You can eat it.” The questioners said, “But it is
blood.” (In early times the spleen was believed to be congealed blood. (Trans.)) He answered, “Only
flowing blood is prohibited to you.” The reason for this prohibition is both that the drinking of blood is
repugnant to human decency and that it may likewise be injurious to health.
During the period of jahiliyyah, a person who felt hungry might jab a bone or sharp object into the flesh of
his animal, and collect and drink the flowing blood. It was concerning this that the poet al‘Ashi said:
Never approach animals that are dead, Nor take a sharp bone to pierce the live one.
Thus, since piercing the flesh of a living animal injures and weakens it, Allâh Ta‘ala prohibited such a
practice.
Pork
3. The third prohibited food is pork, that is, the flesh of swine. Since the pig relishes filth and offal, its
meat is repugnant to persons of decent taste; moreover, recent medical research has shown that eating
swine-flesh is injurious to health in all climates, especially hot ones. Scientific research has also shown
that pork carries a deadly parasite (trichina), among others, and no one can say what science may
discover in the future which will shed more light on the wisdom of this prohibition. Allâh the Almighty
spoke the truth in describing His Messenger, Muhammad (s.a.w.s.), as the one who “makes unlawful
what is foul.” (7:157)
In addition to this, there are also some scholars who say that eating pork frequently diminishes the
human being’s sense of shame in relation to what is indecent.
That Which Is Dedicated to Anyone Other Than Allâh
4. The fourth prohibited category refers to an animal which is dedicated to anyone other than Allâh, that
is to say, one which is slaughtered with the invocation of a name other than the name of Allâh—for
example, the name of an idol. When slaughtering an animal, the Arab polytheists would invoke the
names of their idols, such as al-Lat or al-Uzza. Such a practice is a devotional act addressed to
someone other than Allâh and is a form of worship in which His glorious name is not mentioned. In this
case the reason for the prohibition is entirely related to faith: to safeguard the belief in the Oneness of
Allâh, to purify worship, and to fight shirk and polytheism in whatever form they may be expressed.
Indeed, it is Allâh who created man and gave him control over everything on the earth, subjecting the
animal to his power and permitting him to take its life for food on the condition that His name be
pronounced at the time of slaughter. Pronouncing the name of Allâh while slaughtering the animal is a
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declaration that one is taking the life of this creature by the permission of its Creator, while if one invokes
any other name, he has forfeited this permission and must be denied the use of its flesh.
Types of Dead Animals
The preceding are the four principal categories of prohibited animal foods. As revealed in the verse of
Surh al-Maidah (5:4 (3)), to these four are added five more categories which pertain to further
classifications of the “dead animal,” as follows:
5. The strangled: an animal which has been strangled, for example, by a rope around its neck, or
suffocated, as for instance by putting its head into something which produces suffocation.
6. The beaten: an animal which has been beaten to death by a club or similar object.
7. The fallen: an animal which dies as a result of a fall from a high place, or by falling into a gully or
ravine.
8. The gored: an animal which dies as a result of being gored by the horns of another animal.
9. That which has been (partly) eaten by wild beasts: an animal which has been partially devoured by
wild animals and dies as a result.
After naming these five categories, Allâh makes an exception of “that which you make lawful by
slaughtering,” meaning that if one comes upon such an animal while it is still alive, slaughtering renders
it halal as food. The correct understanding of “still alive” is that some sign of life remains in it. ‘Ali ibn
Abû Talib said, “If you can slaughter the beaten, the fallen or the gored animal while it (still) moves its
hoof or leg, you may eat it.” Commented al-Dahak, “The people of the time of jahiliyyah used to eat
them (dead animals); then Allâh prohibited them in Islâm, excepting what is slaughtered. If it is
slaughtered while it (still) moves a leg, its tail, or an eye, it is halal (Some jurists have said that there
must be life in it, the signs of which are the flow of blood and reflex movements)
Reasons for the Prohibition of the Foregoing Categories
We need not repeat the reasons stated in the preceding discussion concerning dead animals, with the
possible exception of the danger to health, which is not clear in such cases. However, we wish to
emphasize again the significance of prohibitions 5 through 9 above. The All-Wise Law-Giver wants to
teach people to be kind to the animal and to protect it from harm. One should not neglect it so that it can
be strangled, fall from a high place, or be gored in a fight with other animals, nor torture it by severe
beating, possibly resulting in its death, as vicious herdsmen, particularly hired ones, sometimes do, even
goading animals such as two bulls or sheep to fight each other until one wounds or gores the other to
death.
It is solely for this reason that Islâmic jurists have prohibited the eating of the flesh of an animal which
has been gored to death, even if it was wounded by the horns of the other and its blood has flowed; this
prohibition holds even if the blood flowed from a wound in the usual site of slaughter, the throat.
According to my understanding, the purpose behind this is to penalize the owner of such animals who
has left them unattended to gore each other to death; he is not to be rewarded for this negligence by
being permitted to make use of their flesh for food. The reason for prohibiting the eating of animals
partially devoured by wild beasts is to preserve human dignity; a Muslim is not to degrade himself by
eating the leavings of animals. The people of the period of jahiliyyah were in the habit of eating what had
been left by wild animals, wof sheep, camel or cow, but subsequently Allâh prohibited this to the
Believers.
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