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Fatwa from Al-Azhar pertaining to Halal slaughter of animals and the live transport of animals in Islam.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Thanks be to Allah and prayers and peace upon the noblest of all his messengers, Mohamed Bin Abdullah. Allah’s Blessings and Peace be upon Him, upon his family, companions and whoever has followed them with piety till the Day of Judgement and upon all prophets and messengers.

Mr/Ahmed El Sherbeeny, the Lawyer before the Court of Cassation and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Egyptian Society of Animal Friends has submitted a letter including a request of a statement of the Islamic law opinion in two matters:

The first matter is about the opinion of the Islamic law with regards to those to torture the animal at the time of its slaughter by committing acts that contradict treating it with mercy.

The second matter is about the opinion of the Islamic law with regards to transporting the animals for long distances from one country to another by means that do not observe the safety of the animal or treating it with leniency in the manner mentioned in detail in his letter.

To answer the foregoing, we say :

First : The Islamic law has made it a must that the animal would be treated at the time of its slaughter with leniency and by the means that guarantee treating it with mercy. All this is included within the goodwill which was ordered by the Prophet (Allah’s Peace & Blessings be upon Him) in his true saying (Hadith) in which he says “Allah Almighty has dictated goodwill in everything; if you kill you perfect the killing, if you slaughter you perfect the slaughter. “In slaughtering one must sharpen the blade and comfort the animal before slaughtering it” narrated by Muslim. This Prophetic saying indicates that slaughtering the animal must be carried out with leniency and mercy.

This is some of what is understood by the word goodwill mentioned in the Prophetic saying and what is understood from requesting the sharpening of the blade with which the animal shall be slaughtered so that the animal would not be in pain from the slaughter by the dull blade. This is what is meant explicitly by the dull blade. This is what is meant explicitly by the saying of the Prophet, Allah’s Peace Be Upon him “Comfort the animal that will be slaughtered”.

To satisfy such order, it is required that whatever comforts the animal until its slaughter must be done”.

It has been mentioned in the true Prophetic traditions what attests forbidding the sharpening of the slaughtering tool before the animal that will be slaughtered. The Prophet (Allah’s Peace & Blessings Be Upon Him) saw a man sharpening his knife before the animal that he was about to slaughter, so he forbid him from doing so and told him “Do you want to slaughter it twice, once with sharpening the blade before it and once more by cutting its throat!?”

It has also been mentioned in the traditions narrated that Imam Aly (may Allah be pleased with him) prohibited the slaughter of sheep before each other or any other animals so that the feeling of the animal would not be hurt in its last moments.

These evidences and others attest that any act that contradicts leniency with the animal or treating it with no mercy at the time of slaughtering it – in the manner mentioned in the question in detail – is considered a sinful and forbidden act and does not agree with the leniency with the animal that Islam calls for. This is the answer for the first question.

Second : With regards to the second question, we hereby say that the call of Islam to be lenient with the animal and to treat it with mercy includes all cases that necessitate such mercy, among which is transporting the animal. Such transportation must be carried out by a comfortable mean that guarantees its safety, prohibits its torture, threatening its life or afflicting it with diseases that are contagious to the human being or third party. This is deduced for the Prophetic saying of the Prophet (Allah’s Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him) “Any good deed rendered in a hardship is like an almsgiving” and his saying , Peace Upon Him “A woman entered hell fire for detaining a cat which she neither fed nor left to eat the leftovers of the land”.

These two sayings and others attest that treating the animal must be built on its mercy in all cases, among which is transporting it from one place to another.Torturing the animal at the time of its transport – pursuant to what is mentioned in the letter of the questioner – is considered prohibited and forbidden in the law of Islam if the case is as mentioned in the question.

Allah is Higher and Knows Best.

Azhar Sheikh Imam
Dr/Mohamed Sayed Tantawy
(Signed)
24 Apr. 2008

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Seal : Azhar Sheikhdom

The Egyptian Society of
Animal Friends

Publicized Sub. No. 2798/2006

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

His Eminence Dr/Mohamed Sayed Tantawy
Sheikh of Azhar
May Allah Protect Him

Allah’s Peach, Mercy and Blessing be upon you :

It is known that Islam has called for leniency with the animal and made its care among the matters by which the human being is entrusted so that the animal would remain subjugated to his service and would not be transformed into a source of danger to health and life. This Islamic care for the animal manifests one of the civilized aspects of Islam that pays attention to the human being as well as to the animal. At the time in which Islam is exposed to such unjust campaigns accusing it of aggression, hostility to life and destroying the environment, manifesting its concern with leniency with the animal is considered an effective frontage to ward off many of such unfair accusations.

In achievement of this noble intent, we hereby ask your eminence two questions for which we would like to get two legally Islamic answers so that the crow could gain knowledge of the civilized face of Islam in the matter of leniency with the animal, and because these two questions are related to wrong and violent Islamic practices in dealing with the animal, the matter with which it could be understood that this is from Islam, thus it would be misunderstood.

These two questions are :

First Question :

Some people who slaughter the animal and prepare it for the consumer in slaughter houses commit cruel and violent acts with the aim of crippling it so that they could control it.

Among such acts are gouging out the eye of the animal, cutting its tail, cutting the legs’ tendon and stabbing it by a knife in its body so that it would bleed and its strength would weaken, and consequently it could be controlled with the least effort.

What is the opinion of the Islamic law in this concern”

Second Question :

The animals are exposed during their transportation for long distances from their places of production and the different place of their consumption in the different countries to various kinds of cruelty, such as their exposure to hunger, thirst and extreme congestion the matter that leads to the death of some or their affliction with deadly diseases that affect the environment and their meat, the matter that may be transmitted to the health of the human being.

What is the rule of Islam in this matter?

And what is the right Islamic way to transport the animal with regards to the period and the care that must be presented thereto?

May Allah guide to serve Islam and Muslims.

Submitted by
Ahmed El Sherbeeny
Lawyer before the Court of Cassation
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Of the Egyptian Society of Animal Friends
(Signed)

Seal : Egyptian Society of Animal Friends