Indeed, Muslims have differed over cheese made by Magians and polytheists. Someone who considers either view stronger may not censure someone holding the other view except on the basis of evidence from Islamic law. Likewise, they have differed over animals slaughtered without Allah’s name being mentioned; animals slaughtered by the People of the Book over which they invoke a name other than Allah’s; the fat covering the stomach and intestines and that surrounding the kidneys; and their slaughter of claw-bearing animals, such as camels, ducks, and other creatures Allah has forbidden them. They have also differed over having a person from the People of the Book slaughter sacrificial animals, and other such questions.

Each position has been held by a group of renowned scholars. Someone who adopts one position by following its proponent’s authority may not censure someone who adopts the other by following its proponent’s authority. However, if either has evidence from Islamic law, one must submit to such evidence once it becomes clear. No one may prefer one position over another without evidence, or show partisan attachment to one position or scholar over another without proof. Rather, someone who follows a scholar’s authority must remain within the bounds of that adherence: he may neither give preference to a position, nor discredit it, nor declare it correct or mistaken.

Anyone who has knowledge and an explanation to offer should be heard. What becomes clear to be true should be accepted, what becomes clear to be false should be rejected, and judgment should be suspended where neither has become clear. Allah Most High has made people differ in their intellectual capacities just as He has made them differ in their physical capacities. This question and others like it involve depths and subtleties of jurisprudence understood only by those familiar with the scholars’ various positions and their grounds. Someone who knows only one scholar’s position and evidence, but not another scholar’s position and evidence, is among the laypeople who follow scholarly authority, not among the scholars qualified to weigh positions and expose their flaws.

May Allah Most High guide us and our brothers to what He loves and is pleased with. Success comes only through Allah, and Allah knows best.