Chapter: Ritual Slaughter

Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah sanctify his soul—was asked:

About a group of Muslims who vehemently condemn, without qualification, anyone who eats an animal slaughtered by a Jew or a Christian, although it is not known whether those Jews and Christians entered their religion before its abrogation and alteration and before the mission of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—or afterwards. Yet they intermarry, and everyone recognizes their marriages. They are non-Muslims under Muslim protection who pay the jizya, but neither their identities nor those of their forefathers are known. Do those who object have the right to prevent them from slaughtering animals for Muslims? Or may Muslims eat animals slaughtered by them, as elsewhere in Muslim lands?

He answered—may Allah be pleased with him:

No one has the right to condemn anyone for eating an animal slaughtered by Jews or Christians in this age, nor to declare it unlawful for them to slaughter animals for Muslims. Whoever objects to this is ignorant and mistaken, and acts contrary to the consensus of the Muslims. The underlying issue is, in fact, a matter of well-known disagreement among Muslim scholars. In matters subject to independent legal reasoning, objection is permissible only through presenting evidence and making the correct course clear—not through mere condemnation based on