Is Mechanical Slaughtering haram?

In the Name of Allah,

All praise is due to Allah, the Most Wise

Anything good in this writing is from Allah, and any mistakes are from me.

Islamic Center of Windermere:  I went to see the rental property yesterday, and it is huge. It will cost around  $30,000 per month, which is very expensive. I also saw a land close to my home for $500,000 that is big and perfect for masjid. I think that is the best option, but I need to know if there are people willing to participate. Please let me know.

A brother asked me if mechanical slaughtering is haram. I asked him why he wanted to know. He said someone just told him in the masjid that majority of scholars agree in UK that it is haram. I would like to answer this in details, because many believers who live in western countries, are confused.

First of all, there is a difference of opinion, and we should not go around telling each other to follow a specific opinion, unless we are ready to argue with evidences. It is like a sister who wears a niqab tells a sister who doesn't wear niqab that she should wear the face veil (niqab). Or, it is like a brother going around telling others that they should raise their hands before and after ruku. Please leave people alone, and don't impose your opinion on others, if you don't know the details of the opinion.

So, this person who is going around the community telling others not to eat machine cut has not provided any specific opinion with evidences, rather a link to "Anonymous Survey" that was done in UK, where many questions were asked, and one of them was if mechanical slaughtering is halal, and 95 % say no. However, there are no names, and there are no legal opinions, so we don't know who were these people, and what is their evidence. Come on brother! Stop this fitnah. So, we are taking votes to decide our religion now? Mr Ahmed Hanbali would have lost, if a vote was taken. Following is the link to that survey.

http://halalfocus.net/2010/02/18/uk-muslim-scholars-reject-mechanical-slaughtering/

Now, there are opinions which say that Bismillah has to be read over each slaughter by a believer for it to be   halal. I have broken down this argument in my earlier blog, so instead of repeating it let me try something else.

We will follow the fiqh principle that is accepted globally as universal principle, which is that everything on earth is permissible for us, except what is specifically forbidden. It is based on many evidences from the Quran and Sunnah, like following evidences.

"O you who believe! Fulfill (your) obligations. Lawful to you (for food) are all the beasts of cattle except that which will be announced to you (herein)...Forbidden to you (for food) are: Al-Maytah (the dead animals), blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been slaughtered as a sacrifice for other than Allah, and that which has been killed by strangling, or by a violent blow, or by a headlong fall, or by the goring of horns ـand that which has been (partly) eaten by a wild animal ـunless you are able to slaughter it (before its death) - and that which is sacrificed (slaughtered) on An-Nusub (stone altars)." (Quran 5:1 - 3)

The above verse makes it very clear that all animals are by default lawful for us to consume, except which are specifically forbidden. This is the Sunnah of Allah to mention the general principle before mentioning the prohibition, and it can be seen in many places in the Quran. So, according to this verse everything is permissible for us, except what will be told to us by Allah and his Messenger (PBUH). Then, we look at the following verses of the Quran where Allah admonishes us for trying to make something haram that is halal for us.

"So eat of that on which Allah's Name has been mentioned, if you are believers in His Ayat. And why should you not eat of that on which Allah's Name has been mentioned, while He has explained to you in detail what is forbidden to you, except under compulsion of necessity And surely, many do lead astray by their own desires through lack of knowledge. Certainly your Lord knows best the transgressors." (Quran 6:118-119)

Second verse talks about a group of people who forbid food that is slaughtered with the mention of Allah's name. So, why would a believer do that? Well, it is addressing the people who try to find reason other than mentioned by Allah and his Messenger (PBUH).

Now, what is it mean to mention Allah's name on the animal before killing it. If it would have mean that a person stands over the animal, and mention Allah's name, and then the animal is killed by that person, why did the Prophet (PBUH) allowed the following.

'Adi b. Hatim reported: I asked Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) saying: We are a people who hunt with these (trained) dogs, then (what should we do)? Thereupon he (the Holy Prophet) said: When you set of your trained dogs having recited the name of Allah, then eat what these (hounds) have caught for you, oven if it (the game) is killed, provided (the hunting dog) has not eaten (any part of the game). If it has eaten (the game), then you don't eat it as I fear that it might have caught for its own self. And do not eat in case other dogs have joined your trained dogs. (Sahih Muslim 4733)

It is clear from this evidence that pronouncing the name of Allah before killing is a way to ask Allah's permission for consuming that living being, which are not to be harmed otherwise. It is a way to make the intention that the act of killing that will take place is according to the permission Allah gave us in the Quran, and it is not part of the killing ritual.

So, if there is a plant where they have chicken lined up to be slaughtered, and we invoke Allah's permission, and start the process by a button that leads to the slaughter, that meat is permissible to eat, as long as there are no other reason that makes it prohibited.

Now, someone may ask, if the person at the plant has to recite Allah's name over each animal? No, they don't if the machine is continuous, as that action of slaughter has not stopped until the machine stopped. Manual slaughter is interrupted after every animal as one has to move to the next animal. One should recite Allah's name again.

Point of this blog is not to convince anyone to change their opinion, but convince people to tolerate other's opinion when there is strong evidence on both side. We should not ask people to blindly follow a scholar or a group of scholar, when we are not able to understand the evidence ourselves.

Due to this fitnah, local businesses have to follow strict rulings, because otherwise they will have this ignorant mob coming after them. May Allah protect us from these drive by fatwa givers, who don't back them up with evidences. I challenge them to reply to this blog with evidences, so we can look at them.

And Allah knows best.

JazakAllah Khairin

A well wisher
AbuArman Jumani