The second is that they are impure. This is the position of Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī, and the other view reported from Ahmad.

This disagreement underlies their disagreement concerning cheese made by the Magians. Animals slaughtered by the Magians are unlawful to eat according to the overwhelming majority of earlier and later scholars. Indeed, it has been said that the Companions unanimously agreed on this. Thus, when the Magians make cheese—and cheese is made with rennet—these two views apply to it.

The stronger view is that their cheese is lawful, and that the rennet and milk of an animal that has died without lawful slaughter are pure. This is because, when the Companions conquered Iraq, they ate cheese made by the Magians, and this practice was open and widespread among them. Reports that some of them disapproved of it are questionable, for they were transmitted by certain people of the Hijāz, and that transmission is open to question. The people of Iraq were better informed about this, since the Magians lived in their lands, not in the Hijāz.

Further evidence for this is that Salmān al-Fārisī served as ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb’s deputy over al-Madā’in and used to call the Persians to Islam. It is reliably reported that he was asked about certain kinds of clarified butter, cheese and furs. He replied:

“What is lawful is what Allah has made lawful in His Book, and what is unlawful is what Allah has forbidden in His Book. Whatever He has remained silent about is among the things He has pardoned.”

Abū Dāwūd also narrated this as a report traced back to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. It is well known that the question was not about cheese made by Muslims or the People of the Book, for this is a matter