(5830) – and Ibn Mājah (3172) – on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar that the Prophet ﷺ said: “When any one of you performs slaughter, let him do it decisively.”
5 – Another aspect of iḥsān during slaughter is that one must not kill an animal or bird while its companion is watching, for the creature senses what is happening, becomes terrified, and suffers mental anguish.
Hence, the Musnad of Imam Aḥmad relates that “the Prophet ﷺ ordered that blades be sharpened and kept out of the animals’ sight.”
Al-Nawawī said: “It is recommended that the knife not be sharpened in the animal’s presence, and that one not slaughter a beast while another is looking on.”
6 – Iḥsān in slaughter also requires that one must not break the animal’s neck, skin it, sever a limb, or pluck its feathers until its life has completely departed and the soul has left every part of the body. Al-Dāraquṭnī (4/283) narrates from Abū Hurayrah that “the Prophet ﷺ sent Budayl ibn Warqāʾ riding a gray camel to proclaim in the valleys of Minā: ‘Verily, proper slaughter is in the throat; do not hasten to take the life before it departs.’”
7 – Excellence further dictates that camels be slaughtered by nahr—stabbing with a knife in the hollow between the base of the neck and the chest—while other livestock and birds are slaughtered by dhabh (cutting the throat). This is easier for the animal and causes its soul to depart more swiftly. Doing the reverse is permissible, but the former is preferable.
Sharḥ al-Iqnāʿ states: “The better practice is nahr for camels and dhabh for cattle, sheep, and the like, though it remains permissible to slaughter camels by dhabh and to perform nahr on cattle and sheep, for the cut still occurs at the locus of slaughter.”
Shaykh al-Islām said: “Slaughter is valid whether the cut is made above the ghulaṣmah or below it; the ghulaṣmah is the protruding part of the windpipe.”
8 – Having understood the obligation of iḥsān toward the animal at the moment of slaughter and the prohibition of tormenting it physically or psychologically, we realize the unlawfulness of many practices common among butchers in modern abattoirs, namely