Response: This question is in reference to one of your replies. You said that
Allah's name must necessarily be taken before slaughtering animals and that the
lack of pronouncing any other name does not fulfil the requirement of
slaughtering. However, the Qur’ānic verse that you quoted does not seem to make
the requirement for saying Allah's name before slaughtering:
Eat not on which Allah's name has not been pronounced. (6:121)
Could not this possibly mean that a person must say Allah's name before he
begins to eat food?
Also how is a person supposed to make sure that the food he eats is actually
halāl? Are we to watch the slaughtering of every specific animal that we
consume?
Furthermore, I am a bit confused as to the conclusions you draw concerning
the food of the People of the Book. If the slaughtering done by the People of
the Book is conditional on requirements of sacrifice which are from Muslims,
then how can it be the meat of the People of the Book? Naturally, I would assume
that the distinction between Muslim slaughter and that of the People of the Book
would be different in order for that distinction to be made.
Comment: 1. If the context of 6:121 is taken into consideration, the
interpretation you have suggested, I am afraid, cannot be made. Consider the
previous verses:
So eat that on which Allah's name has been pronounced if you have faith in
His signs. Why should not you eat of that on which Allah's name has been
pronounced. He has explained to you in detail what is prohibited to you except
under some compulsion ... (6:119)
The last sentence of this verse clearly shows that the food (meat) which is
under discussion is that which is forbidden because Allah's name has not been
taken while slaughtering the animal from which it was obtained. Taking Allah's
name before starting to eat one's food is not implied here at all. Furthermore,
if the usage of the Qur’ān in this regard is taken into consideration no other
interpretation is possible as well. (See for example 5:4, 22:28, 22:34, 22:36.)
2. Of course! we do not have to watch the slaughtering of an animal. Just the
information is enough -- which of course is sometimes so obvious that there is
no need even to ask and at other times one can easily ask as to how the animal
was slaughtered. This obviously is a requirement only in non-Muslim countries
where there exists a doubt.
3. The distinction is made because by the Qur’ān because at that time there
were some people who used to believe that since the People of the Book were not
Muslims, eating their food was a forbidden thing. The Qur’ān is merely
dispelling this misconception and clarifying that if they take Allah's name in
sacrificing an animal then its meat can be eaten from their tables even if they
have not accepted Islam.
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