Is Meat in the West Ḥalāl? Discussing the Zabīḥah Issue

In the Name of Allāh ﷻ, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. All praise is due to Allāh ﷻ, and may peace and blessings be upon His Messenger Muḥammad ﷺ.

Can a Muslim in the West eat at McDonald’s, or buy any (non-pork) meat at the supermarket, without asking where it came from or how it was slaughtered? There is ongoing debate among Muslims in the West about this. Some argue it is permissible to eat meat in predominantly Christian countries based on the following reasoning:

• The Qur’ān permits consuming meat slaughtered by Muslims, Jews, and Christians, as Allāh ﷻ says: “And the food of the people of the book is permissible for you” (Sūrah al-Mā’idah, Āyah 5).
• Western countries are “Christian countries,” so it can be assumed that meat found in Christian countries will be slaughtered by Christians.

Addressing the Arguments

Question: Is Meat in Western Countries Slaughtered by Christians?

The assumption that any meat found in the West is slaughtered by a Christian is flawed. According to recent statistics, 63% of Americans identify as Christian,¹ less than half (46.2%) of people in England and Wales identify as Christian,² and 53.3% of Canadians identify as Christian.³ Slaughterhouse workers come from the same population, so we can assume they reflect its religious makeup. On that assumption, a given animal has about a 63% chance of being killed by a Christian in the USA, a 46% chance in England and Wales, and a 53% chance in Canada.

Would you drink from a glass that had a 1/3 chance of containing poison? Similarly, would you eat something that has a 1/3 chance of being Ḥarām?

The Sunnah answers this question directly. ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim asked the Prophet ﷺ about game caught by his hunting dog. The Prophet ﷺ said:

“If you find another dog with your dog, and you fear that it took the game together with yours and killed it, then do not eat, for you only mentioned the name of Allāh over your own dog and did not mention it over the other.”⁴

The hunter knew his own dog was valid. He only doubted whether a second dog made the kill, and that doubt alone made the meat forbidden. Meat of unknown origin in the West carries the same doubt, and a far larger one.

The Prophet ﷺ also said, “Whoever avoids the doubtful matters has protected his religion and his honour,”⁵ and “Leave what makes you doubt for what does not make you doubt.”⁶

The jurists turned these texts into legal maxims. The first is al-aṣl fī al-dhabā’iḥ al-taḥrīm (the default ruling on slaughtered meat is prohibition): meat stays Ḥarām until a valid slaughter is established.⁷ The second is idhā ijtamaʿa al-ḥalāl wa al-ḥarām ghalaba al-ḥarām (when the lawful and the unlawful mix, the unlawful prevails).⁸ Under both maxims, the burden of proof is on the meat, not on the one who refuses it.

Another point to note is that Western countries are run secularly based on separation of church and state. Religion has no say in legislation; thus the phrase “Christian country” is misleading and carries no meaning apart from “Christian majority country.”

Question: Is Any Animal Killed by Christians Ḥalāl?

The fact that a Christian killed an animal does not necessitate it falling under the ruling of “food of the People of the Book” mentioned in the Qur’ān. Food of Ahl al-Kitāb is food that is slaughtered according to the rules and regulations found in their scripture and law. An example would be kosher meat, which is slaughtered by Jews according to the laws of the Torah.

The Companions also did not treat the label “Christian” as enough. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib said: “Do not eat the slaughtered animals of the Christians of Banū Taghlib, for they have held on to nothing of their religion except drinking wine.”⁹

If any animal killed by Ahl al-Kitāb is Ḥalāl, pork would also be Ḥalāl because it’s killed and eaten by Christians, earning it the label “food of the Christians.” However, labeling pork as “food of the Christians” is fallacious because the Bible itself prohibits pork: “And the swine … is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat” (Leviticus 11:7-8). Most Christians today say this law no longer applies to them. Yet Jesus (AS) says in their own Gospel, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17).¹⁰

Even the Christians who say the Law of Moses was lifted kept the rule on how an animal dies. When the Apostles released non-Jewish converts from most of the Law, they still commanded them to “abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled” (Acts 15:29).¹¹ So an animal strangled or killed without draining its blood is not “food of the Christians” even by the New Testament.

As an example: If all Muslims start eating pork, would pork become “food of the Muslims”? No, because pork is impermissible according to the Sharīʿah, so it is invalid to describe it as “food of the Muslims”. Similarly, improperly slaughtered animals are not permissible according to Christian and Jewish law, so it is invalid to describe them as being “food of the Christians” or “food of the Jews”.

One may respond, “Animals killed by Ahl al-Kitāb are permissible only if they are not unequivocally Ḥarām in our Sharīʿah such as pork.”

The response to this would be: Improperly killed animals are also unequivocally Ḥarām in our Sharīʿah. There are set conditions for an animal to be slaughtered properly, and if those conditions are not met, the meat is considered Maytah (carrion), which is made Ḥarām in the same Āyah that makes pig Ḥarām. Allāh ﷻ says: “Prohibited to you are dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allāh, and [those animals] killed by strangling or by a violent blow or by a head-long fall or by the goring of horns, and those from which a wild animal has eaten, except what you [are able to] slaughter [before its death]” (Sūrah al-Mā’idah, Āyah 3). This Āyah comes two verses before the Āyah that permits the food of the People of the Book.

Methods of Slaughter

When it comes to methods of slaughter of the Ahl al-Kitāb, people are split into two groups.

Group 1: We can assume that the Christians kill their animals in a proper manner.

Statistics go against this claim. The most common method used on cattle in commercial slaughterhouses in the United States is shooting: a penetrating captive bolt gun fires a metal bolt into the animal’s skull.¹² Poultry is usually stunned with electric shocks. The International Islamic Fiqh Academy ruled that it is not permissible to stun an animal with the penetrating captive bolt, a hatchet, or a hammer. It also ruled that electric stunning of poultry is not permissible, because experience showed that a significant share of the birds die before they are slaughtered.¹³ An animal that dies from the shot or the shock before its throat is cut is mawqūdhah (killed by a violent blow), which the Āyah above names explicitly.

We do not have Ḥusn al-Ẓann (good assumptions) of non-Muslims; if statistics are against them, we believe the statistics. The Qur’ān commands good assumptions among the believers specifically: “Why, when you heard it, did not the believing men and believing women think good of one another?” (Sūrah al-Nūr, Āyah 12). The command to avoid suspicion in Sūrah al-Ḥujurāt is likewise addressed to “you who have believed” and concerns “his brother” (Āyah 12). About non-Muslims, Allāh ﷻ says: “O you who have believed, do not take as intimates those other than yourselves, for they will not spare you [any] ruin” (Sūrah Āl ʿImrān, Āyah 118).

The jurists stated this limit plainly. The Ḥanbalī text Zād al-Mustaqniʿ says, “Bad assumption about a Muslim whose outward state is upright is forbidden.” Ibn ʿUthaymīn explains: “That is, bad assumption about a Muslim is forbidden. As for the disbeliever, bad assumption about him is not forbidden, because he is deserving of it.”¹⁴ ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said about the People of the Book: “Do not trust them, since Allāh has called them treacherous.”¹⁵

Some people argue: You can just say Bismillāh and eat, this is what the Prophet ﷺ said to do. They quote the narration:

[Some people] said: O Messenger of Allāh, there are people here, recent converts from polytheism, who bring us meat and we do not know whether or not they mentioned Allāh’s name over it. The Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) said: Mention Allāh’s name and eat. [Bukhārī]¹⁶

They say: The Prophet ﷺ told us to say “Bismillāh” over meat and eat it.

However, this is a gross misunderstanding of the actual narration, which is about trusting new Muslims and not doubting them. ʿĀ’ishah herself ends the narration by saying the people who brought the meat were recent converts. In a similar vein, Allāh ﷻ says in the Qur’ān, “Do not say to the one who says salām to you, ‘you are not a believer’” (Sūrah al-Nisā’, Āyah 94).

The point is to trust Muslims when they give you meat (especially when they tell you it is Ḥalāl) and not doubt them too much. But, the point is not to eat any meat even if there is a 50% chance it is Ḥarām! Muslims are not like non-Muslims, and doubt is not like certainty.

Group 2: The method of killing does not matter, as long as the one who does it is Christian.

According to the people who make this claim, a Christian or Jew can kill an animal in any manner. The method of slaughter does not matter, as long as it’s a Christian or Jew killing an animal, it will be permissible to eat.

According to this argument, if a Christian kills a cow with an AK-47, it’s permissible for Muslims to eat, but if a Muslim does it, then it becomes Ḥarām. This makes the Christian’s killing more lawful than the Muslim’s, when the most a Christian’s slaughter can be is equal to a Muslim’s.

The strongest scholarly statement of this view comes from the Mālikī judge Ibn al-ʿArabī. He was asked about a Christian who twists a chicken’s neck and then cooks it. He answered that it may be eaten, “because it is his food and the food of his priests and monks, even if this is not a valid slaughter for us.”¹⁷ Yet two pages earlier in the same book, Ibn al-ʿArabī himself says: “If it is asked: what about what they eat that was not slaughtered properly, such as by strangling or crushing the head? The answer is that this is Maytah, and it is Ḥarām by the text. Even if they eat it, we do not eat it, like the pig.”¹⁸ Twisting a chicken’s neck is strangling, so his own principle refutes his fatwā. Shaykh Ṣāliḥ al-Fawzān points out this contradiction and adds that the food of the People of the Book means what they slaughter in the lawful way, because “the most a Kitābī’s slaughter can be is equal to a Muslim’s.”¹⁹

As mentioned earlier, improperly slaughtered animals are considered Maytah (carrion), thus becoming completely and unequivocally Ḥarām.

What are the criteria for something to be Ḥalāl?

As mentioned previously, we are supposed to trust Muslims when they give us food. This is backed up by the Islamic concept of Ḥusn al-Ẓann, which necessitates we have good assumptions of our believing brothers and sisters. The Ḥadīth mentioned earlier where the Prophet ﷺ dispelled the doubts of people regarding some food further emphasizes this point. Therefore, if we are served food marked as “Ḥalāl” or “Dhabīḥah,” it is imperative that we trust it is permissible to eat according to Islamic standards, unless it is completely certain that the food is Ḥarām.

Some people go to an extreme where they doubt all food, even that which is served by Muslims. This goes against Islamic etiquette and creates disunity in the community. As mentioned, Muslims should have Ḥusn al-Ẓann toward each other in all cases and scenarios. If it turns out the food is in fact not Ḥalāl, the blame is on those who lied about it, not on those who innocently trusted it. Allāh ﷻ does not hold people accountable for that which is out of their control.

The three main conditions for slaughtering animals according to Islām are:

1. The animal must be slaughtered in a way that the sufficient amount of veins and passages are cut.²⁰
2. The name of Allāh ﷻ must be mentioned at the time of slaughter (except according to some scholars of the Shāfiʿī madhhab).
3. The slaughterer must be a Muslim, a Jew, or a Christian.

What about kosher?

The majority of this discussion has focused on Christians and their meat. One may ask, what about Jews and their kosher meat? Jews are known for being very strict regarding their methods of slaughter, and they have adhered to the laws laid out for them in their holy books. Therefore, it is permissible to eat valid, certified kosher, as this is clearly meat properly slaughtered by the Jews. However, it is recommended to avoid kosher if there are certified Ḥalāl options.

Conclusion

The argument that any meat in Western countries is permissible to eat because they are “Christian countries” is not valid. There are clear Islamic guidelines that must be followed for meat to be Ḥalāl, and assuming permissibility without verifying the source or method of slaughter is a risky approach that could lead to consuming impermissible food. The default ruling on meat is prohibition until a valid slaughter is established, and the Prophet ﷺ forbade eating game when there was doubt about who made the kill. Muslims should ensure that the meat they eat meets the criteria for Ḥalāl, and when in doubt, it is better to avoid the meat altogether.

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1. Pew Research Center, “About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated,” December 14, 2021. Self-identified Christians make up 63% of U.S. adults. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/ ↩︎
2. Office for National Statistics, “Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021.” 46.2% (27.5 million people) described themselves as Christian. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/bulletins/religionenglandandwales/census2021 ↩︎
3. Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2021. 53.3% of Canadians reported a Christian religion. https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&DGUIDList=2021A000011124&GENDERList=1,2,3&STATISTICList=1,4&HEADERList=0&SearchText=Canada ↩︎
4. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5475. https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5475 ↩︎
5. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 52. https://sunnah.com/bukhari:52 ↩︎
6. Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 2518, graded ṣaḥīḥ. https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2518 ↩︎
7. Muḥammad Muṣṭafā al-Zuḥaylī, al-Qawāʿid al-Fiqhiyyah wa Taṭbīqātuhā fī al-Madhāhib al-Arbaʿah, 1/192: «والأصل في الذبائح التحريم». https://app.turath.io/book/21786?page=186 ↩︎
8. Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥamawī al-Ḥanafī, Ghamz ʿUyūn al-Baṣā’ir Sharḥ al-Ashbāh wa al-Naẓā’ir, 1/335: «إذا اجتمع الحلال والحرام غلب الحرام». https://app.turath.io/book/21588?page=327 ↩︎
9. Musnad al-Shāfiʿī 1/340: «لا تأكلوا ذبائح نصارى بني تغلب؛ فإنهم لم يتمسكوا من دينهم إلا بشرب الخمر». https://app.turath.io/book/9344?page=1518 Its chain is graded ṣaḥīḥ in Rawḍat al-Muḥaddithīn 5/215, citing Ibn Ḥajar’s Fatḥ al-Bārī 9/637. https://app.turath.io/book/88?page=1990 ↩︎
10. King James Version, Leviticus 11:7-8 and Matthew 5:17-18. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+11%3A7-8%3BMatthew+5%3A17-18&version=KJV ↩︎
11. King James Version, Acts 15:20 and 15:29. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+15%3A20%2C29&version=KJV ↩︎
12. Effects of penetrating captive bolt gun model and number of shots on cattle stunning, Meat Science: “The use of a penetrating captive bolt gun is the most common method used to stun cattle in the United States at commercial slaughter facilities.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030917402030663X ↩︎
13. International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Resolution 95 (3/10), Majallat Majmaʿ al-Fiqh al-Islāmī 10/595: «لا يجوز تدويخ الحيوان المراد تذكيته باستعمال المسدس ذي الإبرة الواقذة أو بالبلطة أو بالمطرقة» and «لا يجوز تدويخ الدواجن بالصدمة الكهربائية، لما ثبت بالتجربة من إفضاء ذلك إلى موت نسبة غير قليلة منها قبل التذكية». https://app.turath.io/book/8356?page=16646 ↩︎
14. Ibn ʿUthaymīn, al-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ ʿalā Zād al-Mustaqniʿ, 5/300: «ويحرم سوء الظن بمسلم ظاهره العدالة، أي: يحرم سوء الظن بمسلم، أما الكافر فلا يحرم سوء الظن فيه؛ لأنه أهل لذلك». https://app.turath.io/book/10649?page=1943 ↩︎
15. Reported from ʿUmar in Masā’il Ḥarb al-Kirmānī 2/882: «لا تأمنوهم إذ خونهم الله». https://app.turath.io/book/12527?page=704 ↩︎
16. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5507. ʿĀ’ishah adds at the end: «وكانوا حديثي عهد بالكفر» (they were recent converts from disbelief). https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5507 ↩︎
17. Ibn al-ʿArabī, Aḥkām al-Qur’ān (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah), 2/45: «فقلت: تؤكل؛ لأنها طعامه وطعام أحباره ورهبانه، وإن لم تكن هذه ذكاة عندنا». https://app.turath.io/book/1464?page=695 ↩︎
18. Ibn al-ʿArabī, Aḥkām al-Qur’ān, 2/43: «فإن قيل: فما أكلوه على غير وجه الذكاة كالخنق وحطم الرأس؟ فالجواب: أن هذه ميتة، وهي حرام بالنص، وإن أكلوها فلا نأكلها نحن كالخنزير». https://app.turath.io/book/1464?page=693 ↩︎
19. Ṣāliḥ al-Fawzān, al-Aṭʿimah, pp. 160-161, quoted in Abū Bakr al-Ḥammādī, Tuḥfat al-Sā’il, 14/177: «لأن غاية الكتابي أن تكون ذكاته كذكاة المسلم». https://app.turath.io/book/30178?page=7560 ↩︎
20. Ibn al-Mundhir reports a consensus that the slaughter is valid when the windpipe, the esophagus, and both jugular veins are cut and the blood flows. The madhāhib differ on the minimum:
    Al-Shāfiʿī: the windpipe and the esophagus.
    Abū Ḥanīfah: any three of the four.
    Mālik: the windpipe and the jugular veins; one narration from him says the jugular veins suffice.
    Al-Layth, Abū Thawr, and Ibn al-Mundhir: all four.
    Source: Ibn al-Mulaqqin, al-Iʿlām bi Fawā’id ʿUmdat al-Aḥkām, 10/175. https://app.turath.io/book/13769?page=4817 ↩︎