What is the ruling on meat imported from abroad, from various countries?

The questioner : The People of the Book now. The People of the Book, it is said that the People of the Book are mentioned in the Qur'an...?

The Shaykh : Who are the People of the Book now?

The questioner : The Jews and the Christians.

The Shaykh : Okay, no, no, in any place, in any country?

The questioner : For example, we bring it from Australia.

The Shaykh: Okay

The questioner : We bring it from New Zealand. We are agents for meat from New Zealand. We bring all the meat for the country, the frozen meat for the whole country here, for example, from

The Shaykh : other countries.

The questioner : Yes, so I say I heard from the scholars that it is not permissible to eat this meat, so they asked me what is the evidence? I said, if Allah wills, we will bring you the evidence.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : So now we ask for the evidence, O Shaykh. And I have now moved to the second question. I went to Saudi Arabia, to Jeddah. Is it permissible for me, in the same company where frozen meat is sold, and fresh meat slaughtered from Bulgaria or Romania, and live meat, to separate myself in the live section alone, for example?

The Shaykh : No, because you are helping the company. Your position there is like your position with your brothers. So if it is permissible for you there, it is permissible for you here. And in both positions, it is cooperation in evil. But let us return and say: even the meat coming from Australia, for example, and New Zealand, I heard that this meat is forbidden. What is the reason for its prohibition, according to what you heard?

The questioner : I want to know now, O Shaykh?

The Shaykh : Ah, so as you heard, it is , meaning their slaughter. So the meat that comes from Australia or New Zealand, if it comes killed rather than slaughtered, the fact that they are People of the Book does not benefit us. The Bulgarian meat is not forbidden because, by Allah, communists slaughter it. It is forbidden because it is not slaughtered in the Islamic way, first of all. Because the fact that they are communists is a matter that requires research and clarification, and we have no ruling on it. But Australia is not known to be communist even now, and New Zealand is the same. These are People of the Book. So the important thing in the matter of meat is to know whether it is slaughtered in the European or Bulgarian way, or in the Islamic way. If it is established that it is in the Bulgarian way, then what you heard is correct, meaning it is not permissible. And this is the common practice in all lands of disbelief, because the issue of slaughtering in the Islamic way takes time from them. And these people are materialistic. All these innovations, including the telephone and others, are for the sake of saving time. So they do not ask whether it is halal or haram. Did you see? You heard, for example, as I heard, that an invention has been found or is on the way to being found, that it tells you who you are talking to. This is not permissible in Islam, because it may be a woman, and it is haram for you to look at her. And so on. They do not ask whether it is haram or halal. They ask about everything that brings material gain and saves them time, because time is the cause of what? Earnings. Just as some of the Sufis said about us, and this was part of their wisdom, contrary to their custom: "Time is like a sword; if you do not cut it, it will cut you." Time is like a sword. If you do not cut it in obedience to Allah and worship of Him, it will overcome you and cut you. This is a saying of the utmost wisdom. The Westerners knew this wisdom, but they turned it into what? Into materialism, not worship. And so anything that hinders them and wastes their time, they have no readiness to respond to the Islamic world at all, except through deception and trickery, as you said just now. So the problem with all imported meat from the People of the Book is whether it is slaughtered or not. If it is established that it is slaughtered, and they are People of the Book, then it is halal. If it is established that it is not slaughtered but killed, then it is carrion, and it is not permissible to eat it. And the common practice, as we said just now, is that these people do not slaughter. But anything can happen. Either they will realize that the way they are proceeding is not a healthy or medical method, and they will return from it, just as you are now hearing warnings about narcotics, even about smoking. But this requires proof that they have indeed realized it.

The questioner : O Shaykh, in the case of New Zealand, we are their agents for sheep here. So we would like to be, for example, their agents for cattle. So we asked them...

The Shaykh : Live cattle?

The questioner : No, frozen slaughtered meat. We are their agents here, as with frozen slaughtered beef. So we asked them to be our agents for frozen beef as well. They said, if you want the cattle to be our agents, they will not be slaughtered in the Islamic way.

The Shaykh : Very good.

The questioner : This was one of their conditions. So is it permissible for us to consider that it is slaughtered in the Islamic way there? Or must we verify one hundred percent by sending...? I mean, is this evidence that the sheep are slaughtered in the Islamic way?

The Shaykh : Okay, are they saying this?

The questioner : Yes, they say so.

The Shaykh : Did they say explicitly about the cattle? Did they say about the sheep that it is slaughtered in the Islamic way?

The questioner : Yes, they said it is slaughtered in the Islamic way. Yes?

The Shaykh : Okay, why then did those who were frank with you regarding the cattle slaughter say, "It is not slaughtered in the Islamic way," and you told me that they said the sheep are slaughtered in the Islamic way? Okay, it occurred to me just now, when you told me that they might prepare it if the one going there has insight and cleverness, he will know whether it is forgery or reality. So you are able now, if it is necessary to import sheep meat slaughtered, according to their claim, is it possible for you to describe to us the slaughterhouse where you slaughter the sheep in the Islamic way? In my opinion, they will not refuse unless they are lying, correct?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Okay, did they write to you? And after a while, you go with one of your brothers or friends, after getting permission from them, saying, "We want to visit the slaughterhouse. Do you have any objection?" They should also say there is no objection. Preparing the slaughterhouse for forgery is not possible. And I tell you something I saw with my own eyes in Britain, not in London, but in some country about two hundred kilometers from Britain. There is a Pakistani Salafi Muslim. I met him in Jeddah during one of the Hajj seasons at the place of one of our Salafi brothers. Do you know someone there whom you will go and meet?

The questioner : No, by Allah, my Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Yes, I must now, and in the future, direct you to a person whom you might benefit from getting to know. He was my colleague in teaching at the Islamic University, a Salafi. I got to know this Pakistani and learned that he has a slaughterhouse in London, in Britain, called "Modern Islamic." He wrote to me that he had actually traveled there, and I met the man and visited his slaughterhouse. The slaughterhouse, although he did not spend a great deal on it, is not one where you can just take a picture, because the slaughterhouse from which you import must be very large. So we went to this man's place. We entered a normal reception room enclosed by glass, then we went out of it into another room where the sheep pass through. The sheep are brought from a pen, from that one to this room. Next to this room is a small door, about a meter high. When it opens, two people are behind it. The job of the one at the door is to take the head and lay it down, and the other slaughters it. The first one's job is to lift it, and the other helps him hang it. With what? With hooks. He pushes it with a shove like this. There is a track, a track that goes about six or seven meters in a large room, then it turns behind a wall. Of course, the track is moving, of course. We walked with the track. We reached the second person, who had received the carcass. He slit the skin of it, inflated it, and flayed it. This is his only job: the flaying, taking the skin and throwing it into a barrel he has, and then he pushes it with a shove to a third person, who is about three meters away from him. The third person's job is a very strong water pump. He slits the belly and takes out the intestines and throws them into the barrel, then washes them so that nothing remains but the weight. He gives it the final push, and it goes to the scale where a person is assigned there. What is the weight? He records it and puts it in a room. We saw the merchants, what? They come and take it immediately. This process made the man famous in Britain. The English themselves come to buy from him because the one who knows the medical aspects believes that this slaughter is healthier than their slaughters. So now, if you receive news from the company that yes, we slaughter in the Islamic way, and you ask them for a description, and they send you the description, and you ask them afterwards to go and see this slaughtering process, they cannot do what here? Falsification, because you are going to tour what? You and whoever is with you, the entire slaughterhouse and its sections, as we did in the simple slaughterhouse. They said our man slaughters seven hundred heads every day, and he cannot keep up with the customers. This huge factory from which you import, of course, in other countries they import. What must it be? It must be a city.

The questioner : I mean, for example, Jordan alone used to receive three or four thousand heads every day.

The Shaykh : Yes, do you see how it is? So I do not think they can falsify it, but the issue requires what? The two stages. You go through them. Send us a description of the slaughterhouse where you slaughter in the Islamic way, then get permission from them to visit this slaughterhouse. As a precaution, do you have other slaughterhouses, not in the Islamic way? If they say yes, then what can happen here? C and J, do you understand how? But even so, something else comes to my mind now, and that is: has medicine not reached the point of knowing that this carcass, even if the head is separated, they test its meat to see if this was killed or slaughtered? It requires a question, because today you know that microscopic examination reveals things beyond imagination. If you do all these things, then the soul is reassured that it is indeed slaughtered in the Islamic way, then we have no objection to applying the verse . But a mere report like this, which we have not verified, is not enough, because it is possible that deception reaches them in order to entangle you in importing sheep meat. They tell you that cows cannot be slaughtered in the Islamic way, but sheep are slaughtered in the Islamic way, and the truth is that neither type is slaughtered in the Islamic way. The matter could be like this...
Abu Layla : Our Shaykh, those who let them know how this killed one died, and how, and at what time it was killed, they can know, our Shaykh, how this carcass was slaughtered, meaning when there is a murder of a person...

The Shaykh : I say that.

The questioner : I mean, if we sent people to Bulgaria

The Shaykh: Okay

The questioner : He slaughters with his hand

The Shaykh : He slaughters with his hand?

The questioner : Yes, in Bulgaria, not in New Zealand. Is it permissible to eat?

The Shaykh : It is permissible, but do they accept?

The questioner : I mean, if we asked them for this condition and they agreed, for example, so that it becomes a condition of the purchase for those who buy the meat? Is it permissible to eat this meat?

The Shaykh : Yes, it is permissible, yes.
Abu Layla : Our Shaykh, we are talking about the New Zealand one, before we verify?
Al-Halabi : Again, our Shaykh, and you are speakingAbu Layla : He supplicates and recites the Verse of the Throne and so on.

The questioner : In general, the New Zealand meat, our Shaykh, is very excellent, even in taste it resembles local meat, unlike the Bulgarian meat. And also another thing, our Shaykh, the Bulgarian meat is tender. I mean, we are now importing live Bulgarian meat in planes, for example, from Bulgaria. They slaughter it the next day, it does not get tired. It comes by plane on the same day.

The Shaykh: Okay

The questioner : They slaughter it the next day, and it becomes very hard. The Bulgarian meat is very hard when it comes slaughtered and ready, it is tender, indicating that there is blood inside it.
Abu Layla : There is a second note, about our brother Nadeem al-Lahham. The issue of slaughter, our Shaykh, the knife. He says, "I am now selling a carcass from Bulgaria as if I am selling more than two hundred local carcasses regarding the knife. I mean, the blood clings to it, and so on. It differs from the other meats."

The Shaykh : Good, this is very reasonable.

The questioner : And he cites the statements of some scholars, and always follows up by saying, "This is my opinion" or "This is what I see"?

The Shaykh : This is one of the misfortunes of our time. We have many recorded words from this brother of ours who has not reached the level of understanding from Allah and His Messenger, but he read a statement or heard an opinion and it pleased him. It is not permissible for him to say, "This is my opinion," but rather he should say, "This is the opinion of so-and-so, and I benefited from it," unless he is a scholar, in which case it is permissible for him to do so.