Book of Slaughtered Animals
Chapter on Ritual Slaughter and Its Legal Ruling

In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Compassionate. May Allah bless our master Muhammad, his family, and his Companions, and grant them peace in abundance.

Chapter on Ritual Slaughter and Its Legal Ruling

Every animal that a person can subdue and lawfully slaughter belongs to one of two categories: those whose proper method is dhabḥ (slaughter) and those whose proper method is nahr (piercing). Dhabḥ is carried out by severing the ḥalqūm (windpipe) and the two wadajayn (jugular veins). Mālik does not insist on cutting the mariʾ (esophagus). According to most of Mālik’s companions, if the two jugular veins together with the greater part of the windpipe are cut, the slaughter is valid. If the slaughterer withdraws his hand before completing the act and then immediately returns to finish it, the slaughter still counts—though some hold it invalid. The first view is sounder, for he first inflicted the wound and then completed the ritual slaughter while the animal’s life-force was still present.

It is recommended that the blade be drawn toward the head; if this is not done, there is no harm. Nahr is performed by thrusting the blade into the labba, the hollow at the base of the neck. If someone slaughters an animal whose sunnah method is nahr, or performs nahr on an animal whose sunnah method is dhabḥ, without necessity, its meat should be left uneaten as a matter of dislike, not strict prohibition. In cases of necessity, however, there is no objection.

ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Salama, together with a number of scholars from Medina and elsewhere, maintained