“And give thanks to Allah for His blessings, if it is Him alone that you worship.” Then He clarified the prohibited things, saying: 23/b
“Indeed, He has only forbidden you carrion.” Abū Jaʿfar reads “carrion” with gemination throughout the Quran, while the remaining readers apply gemination in only some instances. Carrion is every animal normally subject to slaughter that dies without being lawfully slaughtered. “And blood”: what is meant is flowing blood, as indicated by His saying, “or blood poured forth” (al-Anʿām 6:145). The Sacred Law exempted fish and locusts from carrion, and the liver and spleen from blood, rendering them lawful.
ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Muḥammad al-Khaṭīb informed us; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Aḥmad al-Khallāl informed us; Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Aṣamm informed us; al-Rabīʿ ibn Sulaymān informed us; al-Shāfiʿī informed us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam informed us, from his father, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Two dead animals and two kinds of blood have been made lawful for us. The two dead animals are fish and locusts; and the two kinds of blood—I believe he said—are the liver and the spleen.” (1)
“And the flesh of swine”: by this He means all of its parts, but He expressed it as flesh because that constitutes most of it. “And that over which a name other than Allah has been invoked”: that is, what has been slaughtered for idols and false deities. The original meaning of invocation is raising one’s voice. When they slaughtered for their gods, they would raise their voices in mentioning them. This became so customary among them that anyone who slaughtered—even if he did not pronounce the name aloud—was described as having made an invocation. Al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas and others said concerning “that over which a name other than Allah has been invoked”: it means whatever has had the name of other than Allah mentioned over it.
“Then whoever is compelled”: ʿĀṣim and Ḥamzah read the nūn with a kasrah, as they do in comparable cases. Abū ʿAmr agrees, except before a lām or a wāw, as in, “Say: Call upon Allah or call upon the Most Merciful” (al-Isrāʾ 17:110). Yaʿqūb agrees except before a wāw, and Ibn ʿĀmir agrees in cases of tanwīn. All the remaining readers give it a ḍammah. Those who read it with a kasrah say that a consonant in sukūn is vocalized with a kasrah; those who read it with a ḍammah transferred to it the ḍammah of the first letter of the verb. Abū Jaʿfar reads the ṭāʾ with a kasrah. Its meaning is: whoever is compelled to eat carrion—that is, whoever is forced and driven to it.
“Neither seeking it nor exceeding the limit”: “neither” is in the accusative as a circumstantial qualifier; it is also said to be exceptive. Whenever “neither” can be replaced in its position by “not,” it is circumstantial; and whenever it can be replaced by “except,” it is exceptive. The basic meaning of seeking is pursuing corruption. It is said of a wound that it does so when it spreads toward decay. The basic meaning of exceeding the limit is wrongdoing and transgression beyond the proper bounds. It is said that someone has exceeded the limit against another when he wrongs him.
They differed concerning the meaning of “neither seeking it nor exceeding the limit.” Some said that “neither seeking it” means not rebelling against the ruler, and “nor exceeding the limit” means not being a transgressor who is sinfully travelling—for example, one who sets out to commit highway robbery or to spread corruption in the land. This is the view of Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid, and Saʿīd ibn Jubayr. They held that one whose journey is sinful may not eat carrion when compelled to do so, nor avail himself of the legal concessions granted to travellers until he repents. Al-Shāfiʿī, may Allah have mercy on him, held this view, because permitting it to him would aid him in his corruption. A group held that seeking and exceeding the limit refer back