The Ruling on Eating Meat Imported from the Lands of Disbelievers

Question:
The questioner says: What is the ruling on eating imported meat, such as chicken, sheep, and others? We hope the answer will be sufficient. If the answer includes details regarding the method and how the meat is processed, how do we obtain that information?

Answer:
This issue of imported meat is frequently asked about; this question is very common, and there is an urgent need to tighten this matter from two sides: from the side of regulating the imported meat and the imported treatment, and from the side of the government in every country directing importers to import with knowledge, and not to import except meat that is known to have been slaughtered according to the Islamic method, and that the slaughter was performed by Muslims or the People of the Book, whose slaughter is permissible.
This issue requires detailed explanation. Those who import meat now, we do not have sufficient information that they have paid attention to the sufficient conditions. Although it is known to the Ministry of Commerce here that the importer has been concerned with this here, and that he does not import except what is sold for eating, that is their claim. But the believer and the Muslim may doubt many of these things, that the meat imported from the lands of the Shi'ah is dangerous, and because the Muslims there are weak and oppressed, it is feared that they did not oversee this matter, and it is feared that the one who oversaw it from among them was not known for tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and uprightness. These are things that necessitate caution in this position. Likewise, from the West, from the lands of the Christians, there are companies that slaughter in a non-Islamic manner, and there are companies that slaughter in an Islamic manner, so the position is dangerous, and the believer should be cautious about these things, and not eat except from something that is known from his country, slaughtered in his country, so he slaughters it himself. But if he knows that this is imported from the food of the People of the Book, and from what the People of the Book slaughtered, and nothing has reached him about it that necessitates its prohibition, then the original ruling is its permissibility; because Allah has permitted the food of the People of the Book. So if he knows that this is imported from the lands of the Christians, from London, from France, from England, from the like of that, and the heads are raised, and he does not know about this company that imported it or this entity that imported it anything that contradicts that, then the original ruling is that it is halal by this, this is the original ruling. And when he knows that this company that imported this meat does not slaughter the head except after that, after death, or that it slaughters it in a non-Islamic manner, such as strangling or the like, or striking the head until it dies or what is similar to that, then he does not eat what is upon him, what is upon him is its prohibition, and that it be strangled or poisoned. And if he doubts in that, it is better that he be cautious for himself, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Leave that which makes you doubt for that which does not make you doubt" . But we do not prohibit what Allah has made permissible, so we do not prohibit the food of the People of the Book, it is halal for us until we know that there is in it what prohibits it. As for the food of the communists and the polytheists, from the Zoroastrians and others, it is forbidden without doubt, unless a Muslim or a Person of the Book oversees its slaughter.