and also from Makḥūl and ʿAṭāʾ.
ʿAbd al-Malik said: “It is better to refrain from what they slaughter for their festivals, their votive offerings, their dead, and their churches.” He added: “There is another flaw as well—eating it amounts to aggrandizing their idolatry.”
Saʿd al-Maʿāfirī once asked Imām Mālik about the food that Christians prepare for their deceased and then distribute in charity on their behalf: may a Muslim eat from it? Mālik replied, “He ought not to; he should not accept it from them,” for it is made in veneration of polytheism, and therefore stands on the same footing as the animals they sacrifice for their festivals and churches.
Ibn al-Qāsim was asked about a Christian who bequeaths that something of his property be sold for the benefit of a church: is it permissible for a Muslim to purchase it? He answered, “That is not lawful for him, for it entails veneration….”
(1) The person meant is Mak-hul al-Shami, Abu Abd Allah, the Damascene jurist, one of the leading scholars of greater Syria. He was once accused of espousing the doctrine of qadar (predestination) but later recanted. He is judged reliable, though he practiced tadlis (obscuring one’s source). Muslim includes his hadiths. He died in 114 AH. See Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 10:289–93, no. 509.
(2) His biography has already been given; see the Index of Persons.
(3) Manuscript A reads wa-aqsasatahum. In either phrasing the intended word is al-qasawisa (Christian priests), the plural of qiss, a title for Christian clergy.
(4) Manuscript A and the printed edition read kullahu (all of it).
(5) This refers to Saʿd b. ʿAbd Allah al-Maʿafiri, a Maliki scholar and disciple of Malik; the prominent jurists Ibn Wahb and Ibn al-Qasim studied under him. He died in 173 AH. See Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi, Tabaqat al-Fuqaha, p. 150.
(6) The printed edition reads: “he should not take it from them.”
(7) The printed edition reads: kal-dhabh (as with slaughtering).
(8) Manuscripts C and D read: li-kanisa (for a church).
(9) Manuscript A reads: li-l-Muslim (for the Muslim).