People of the Book mentioning the name of Allaah when slaughtering animals

8-9-2016 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. I understand that Muslims are allowed to eat food from the People of the Book. However, is it still halal to eat kosher meat if the Rabbi Sachet only mentioned Allaah's name on the first animal and the last animal?
Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ʻalayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger. 

We have previously underlined the ruling on consuming the meat of the animals slaughtered by the People of The Book in fataawa 82899 and 83836 in detail. We have referred to the scholarly difference of opinion as to whether mentioning the name of Allaah upon slaughtering the animal by the person from the People of the Book is a condition for the lawfulness of eating its meat. The most predominant view in this regard is that when the person from the People of the Book slaughters the animal, the meat of that animal is declared lawful to the Muslims even if it was slaughtered without mentioning the name of Allaah on it. We shall cite some statements of scholars in this regard. For instance, Al-Kawsaj may Allaah have mercy upon him wrote pertaining to his questions on Fiqh issues to Imaam Ahmad and Is-haaq ibn Raahawayh may Allaah have mercy upon them “I asked him about the ruling on consuming the meat of an animal slaughtered by a Christian person without mentioning the name of Allaah on it. He (Imaam Ahmad) replied, ‘There is no harm in that (i.e. it is lawful to consume such meat).’ Is-haaq (ibn Raahawayh) gave the same answer.”

The Maaliki scholar An-Nafraawi may Allaah have mercy upon him wrote:

“The apparent indication of the author’s statement, like that of other scholars’ statements in this regard, suggests that it is required to mention the name of Allaah and hold the intention while slaughtering an animal by the Muslim and non-Muslim person (from the People of the Book), which is not the case. Al-Ajhoori said, ‘It is obligatory to mention the name of Allaah and hold the intention while slaughtering an animal if the slaughterer is Muslim; but if he is non-Muslim (from the People of the Book), then holding the intention or mentioning the name of Allaah is not taken into consideration with regards to eating the meat of the animal that he slaughtered.’” [Al-Fawaakih Ad-Dawaani]

Allaah knows best.

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