May Allah fight the Jews—may He curse them—for contriving that spurious loophole. The Prophet’s invocation here calls attention to the underlying reason why selling these items is forbidden.

Jamaloohu: with a fatḥah on the jīm and a light mīm, meaning “they melted it.” Al-jamīl refers to liquefied fat.

Overall Meaning
This noble Islamic law has come with everything that secures human welfare and has warned against whatever harms minds, bodies, and faith. It declares all wholesome things lawful—indeed, they are the majority of what Allah has placed on earth for us—and it makes the foul unlawful.

Among the prohibited foul things are the four items enumerated in this ḥadith, each pointing to a distinct category of harm.

1. Wine—meaning every substance that intoxicates and clouds the mind—is the mother of all abominations. Through it a person loses the blessing of reason with which Allah has honored him, and in his drunkenness and frivolity he plunges into every sort of evil and enormity, spreading enmity and hatred among Muslims and diverting them from goodness and from the remembrance of Allah.

2. The hadith then mentions carrion. Such an animal usually dies only after being poisoned by microbes and disease, or after its blood becomes trapped in its flesh and spoils it. Eating it causes great bodily harm and wrecks one’s health. Moreover, it is a filthy, putrid corpse that sound souls naturally detest; were it eaten despite that revulsion, it would pile sickness upon sickness and calamity upon calamity.

3. Next comes the vilest, most repugnant and hideous of animals: the swine, which contains diseases and microbes that fire can scarcely kill. Its harm is grave, its corrupting effects many, and on top of that it is impure and filthy.

4. Finally, the hadith mentions something even more harmful and disastrous: idols. They are humanity’s great misguidance and temptation; through them Allah has been opposed and partners set up with Him in His exclusive right to be worshiped. Idols are the very source of misguidance and the center of tribulation. Messengers were sent and scriptures revealed solely to combat them and rescue people from their evil. How many creatures have been led astray by them? How many nations have erred because of them? How many have thereby become deserving of the Fire?

These foul things are paradigms of the various harms and corruptions that assail intellect, body, and religion. They serve as examples urging us to shun every foul thing and to safeguard ourselves from whatever would ruin our minds, bodies, and faith. Steering clear of them is a protection against all manner of evils.