Chapter on the Rulings of Ritual Slaughter (dhakāh)

Because the permissibility of eating any land animal is conditioned on its having undergone the prescribed ritual slaughter, and because whatever has not been subjected to that rite is an unlawful carcass, studying dhakāh and knowing its requirements is extremely important.

The jurists—may Allah have mercy on them—define dhakāh as the slaughtering (dhabḥ) or sacrificial piercing (naḥr) of an edible land animal by severing its windpipe (ḥulqūm) and esophagus (marīʾ), or, in the case of an animal that cannot be subdued, by wounding it so that it dies (ʿaqar). The term is taken from its linguistic root, for dhakāh in Arabic means “completion”; slaughter completes the exit of the animal’s soul. The Most High says, “Forbidden to you is carrion … except what you manage to slaughter properly” (Q 5:3), meaning that you reach the animal while it still shows signs of life and then complete the taking of its life. The word was thereafter used for ritual slaughter whether it follows a prior injury or is done from the outset.

As for its legal ruling, dhakāh is indispensable: nothing from an animal that can be controlled becomes lawful without it, for an unslaughtered animal is a carcass. The scholars have agreed unanimously that carrion is forbidden except to one in dire necessity. The Almighty says, “Forbidden to you is carrion” (Q 5:3). Fish, locusts, and every creature that lives only in water are excluded, for they are lawful without slaughter—their carcasses being permissible—on account of the hadith traced back to Ibn ʿUmar: “Two kinds of carrion and two kinds of blood have been made lawful for us: