life, just as breath is the substance of life. Thus, when they are severed, life departs; therefore, severing them is obligatory.

Question: Must they be completely severed? This is not a condition. Thus, if one cuts half of the windpipe, then inserts the knife beneath it and cuts half of the esophagus, the slaughtered animal is lawful, because cutting and completely severing them are not a condition. This is a matter over which there is disagreement.

As for the ruling on severing the two large blood vessels, according to the view of our jurists, it is sunnah and not a condition for the lawfulness of the slaughtered animal. Since no explicit text has been transmitted concerning this matter, the scholars have differed over it. For the explicit, authentic text relevant here is the Prophet’s saying, peace and blessings be upon him: “Eat whatever causes the blood to flow, provided Allah’s name has been mentioned over it” (1). Likewise, there is his reported saying, peace and blessings be upon him—though its chain of transmission has been criticized—“Slaughtering is at the throat and the upper chest” (2). Thus, the well-known position of the madhhab is that the condition is to sever the windpipe and the esophagus.

It has also been said that the condition is to sever the two large blood vessels, even if the windpipe and esophagus are not severed. Those who hold this view cite the Prophet’s saying, peace and blessings be upon him: “Whatever causes the blood to flow” (3). He did not say, “whatever cuts off breathing,” or “whatever cuts off the passage of food.” There is no doubt, in the view of anyone knowledgeable, that blood cannot be made to flow except by severing the two large blood vessels alone; as for the windpipe and esophagus, severing them is part of completing the slaughter. They also cite the fact that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, “forbade the slaughter of Satan” (4): this is when an animal is slaughtered but its jugular veins are not cut. This was narrated by Abu