and the most that happens to a butcher is that he occasionally gets blood on himself. Touching him when there is no blood on him does no harm. Even if a small amount of blood gets onto the person touching him, it is overlooked, for small amounts of blood are excused. Any impurity on a butcher does not come from grease, for grease is pure and contains no impurity, while small amounts of blood are overlooked. Washing one’s hand after shaking hands with a butcher or an itinerant meat seller is an obsessive misgiving and excessive scrupulousness contrary to the Sunnah.

Al-Bukhārī mentioned that Umar ibn al-Khattāb performed ablution using water from a Christian woman’s jar. Moreover:

“The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to kiss al-Hasan’s penis. He also prayed while carrying Umāmah, his daughter’s daughter: when he prostrated, he put her down, and when he stood up, he carried her.”

There are many similar reports demonstrating the latitude allowed in this matter.

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Eating roasted meat and strips of meat is permissible, whether the meat has been washed or not. Indeed, washing the meat of a slaughtered animal is an innovation. Throughout the Prophet’s lifetime, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—would take meat, cook it and eat it without washing it. They would see streaks of blood in the cooking pot. This is because Allah only forbade them blood that flows out—that is, blood that is poured out and shed. He did not forbid the blood remaining in the veins. He did, however, forbid them to trace out the veins, as the Jews do, on account of whose wrongdoing