—namely, the two types of carrion are fish and locusts, and the two types of blood are the liver and the spleen.” This was related by Aḥmad and others. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, also said regarding the sea: “Its water is purifying and its dead creatures are lawful.”

There are four conditions for valid ritual slaughter.

Condition One: the slaughterer must be competent—that is, sane and following a revealed religion, either Islam or the faith of the People of the Book. Therefore, anything slaughtered by a madman, an intoxicated person, or a child who has not yet reached discernment is impermissible, for such individuals cannot intend the act of ritual slaughter. Likewise, it is unlawful to eat what is slaughtered by an idol-worshipping polytheist, a Magian, an apostate, or a grave-worshipper who calls upon the dead, seeks refuge at shrines, and asks their occupants for help, for all of that is major idolatry.

As for a non-Muslim from the People of the Book—namely, a Jew or a Christian—his slaughtered animal is lawful, because the Almighty says, “The food of those who were given the Scripture is lawful for you” (Q 5:5), meaning that the slaughtered animals of Jews and Christians are lawful for you, O Muslims. This is the unanimous position of the scholars; Imam al-Bukhārī, may Allah have mercy on him, transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās: “Their food means their slaughtered animals.”

By implication of the noble verse, the slaughter performed by any non-Book disbeliever is not lawful, and this too is unanimously agreed upon.