1 Samuel chapter 15 verse 3:
“Now go and smite Amalekites, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”
Joshua chapter 6 verse 16-21:
“16 And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city. 17 And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the Lord: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. 18 And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. 19 But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord. 20 So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. 21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.”
Deuteronomy chapter 21 verse 1-4:
“1 If one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known
who hath slain him: 2 Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain: 3 And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke; 4 And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley.”
Exodus chapter 13 verse 11:
“11 And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he sware unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee, 12 That thou shalt set apart unto the Lord all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast; the males shall be the Lord's. 13 And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem.”
Mathew chapter 8 verse 28:
“28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. 29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? 30 And there was a good way off from them a herd of many swine feeding. 31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. 32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the water.”
As we mentioned in the beginning of this book that Islam stands a moderate position with regards to animals. It neither sanctify animals and raise them to the status of a god nor detract from their value and status. It did not exaggerate in not approaching animals like what Vegetarians who don't eat meat do, nor it exaggerate in eating meat, rather, Islam stands a moderate position, such a position that explains to us that animals have been created by Allah for many reasons, objectives and benefits. One of those benefits is to use their meat as food for humans, and this necessitates killing them for the direct benefit of eating their meat. However, Allah did not leave us to invent and experiment ways and means to kill animals, as this would leave the door open to torture the animals! Rather, Allah; the Exalted, has revealed to us a Sharia (law) which shows us the ways and the etiquette of killing animals for direct benefit.
Definition of slaughter:
Slaughter is the passing of a very sharp knife swiftly on the throat of an animal to cut its two carotid arteries10 whilst it is alive. Cutting the trachea (windpipe) and the oesophagus (food pipe), is more complete and better for the slaughter process. The butcher should not cut beyond that, so he should not cut
10 The carotid arteries are major blood vessels in the neck that supply blood to the brain, neck and face. There are two carotid arteries, one on the right and one on the left.
the spinal cord or amputate the head except after the complete death of the animal.
Criticism against Islamic slaughter:
We often hear harsh criticism from some non-Muslims for the method of Islamic slaughter, but to refute this criticism should be mentioned the following points:
1- Usage of the term “Islamic slaughter”:
This term “Islamic slaughter” is often used by some non-Muslims to criticize Islam in general, trying to create a false picture and misconception that Islam is the only religion that invented slaughter, while other religions, cultures and civilizations do not slaughter animals!
However, in reality, slaughter is the main method that been used from humans since thousands of years ago and till today. Thus, all the prophets, such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon all of them) have slaughtered animals to eat their meat. They neither used electrocution (which was discovered lately), nor gas suffocation, nor strangling (hanging with a rope), nor breaking the neck, nor smashing the head with a stone etc.
Thus, whoever says that the “Islamic slaughter” is not a humane method, then he criticized not only Islam, but all divine religions, and all Messengers and prophets of Allah (peace be upon all of them).
2- Protecting human health:
Islam didn’t enact any law or rules except what is in the interest of human beings and protecting them from any serious diseases. Thus, slaughtering animals before eating their meat is
the healthiest way for humans, as slaughter, as we mentioned before, is the passing of a very sharp knife swiftly on the throat of an animal to cut its two carotid arteries that deliver blood to the brain, and this method forces the heart continuously to push more blood towards the brain that is suffering from lack of blood supply.
This process makes the animal to get rid of all of its blood from the cut in its throat, and so his body is clean, almost free of blood.
As for the health benefit of having the animal free of blood, it is that blood is the swamp of germs and microbes, so when a tainted blood of an animal reaches to the human, it transfers to him as well all the germs and microbes that it carries within it.
Many non-Muslims who tried the meat that is slaughtered according to the Islamic way, have found a significant difference in the meat’s shape and cleanliness during its boiling and cooking. As the meat that is not slaughtered according to the Islamic way, has some of its blood has clotted between muscle membranes, and during boiling that meat, a lot of unclean foam comes out from the muscle membranes, and flows on the surface of the boiling water.
However, during boiling meat that were slaughtered according to the Islamic way, the water is almost clean and has the least of such foam.
3- Other methods to killing an animal other than the Islamic slaughter method are inhumane methods:
Such methods are of two kinds:
A) Stunning or dazing before slaughter:
Some non-Muslims criticize the Islamic slaughter method saying that the animal must be stunned or dazed before slaughter it! However, in fact, Islam did not generally prohibit “stunning” the animal before slaughter, as long as certain conditions have been taken into account: 1) Stunning should not lead to the death of the animal, as this makes the animal a dead meat with coagulated blood, 2) It should not cause some blood clotting even with slaughter, 3) It should have a practical benefit in not making the animal to feel the slaughter process and to not be just as an extra pain and suffering for the animal before the slaughter process.
But in fact, these conditions are not met in the stunning methods currently used in the West. These methods that have recently been invented and have nothing to do with stunning or dazing the animal before slaughter, rather, they double its pain and greatly harms humans. They cause the clotting of some blood in the body of the animal, so some bacteria and germs that exist in this blood reach to human through the consumption of this meat. Some of these methods are:
Electrical stunning:
Electrical stunning is done by sending an electric current through the brain of the animal before slaughter, to create a shock and abnormal alert to the brain cells, causing deformities of brain cells and creating a state of non-distinguishing. There are doubts about if the practitioners of these methods are fully aware about their defects and the problems resulting from them.
One of their defects is that the strength of the electric shock cannot be calculated in proportion to the strength and weakness of each individual animal, the electric shock on a weak animal may cause his immediate death, and thus it becomes a dead animal with clotted blood and its flesh becomes more dark and speckled. As for strong animal, the electric shock may neither cause its death nor its sufficient unconsciousness, rather, it may cause it complete paralysis while its full consciousness remains as it is! Therefore, the animal has been tortured first by the electric shock and then be subjected to slaughter!
Moreover, the electric shock has disrupted the heart movement and the blood flow, causing blood clotting in the veins, bleeding in the muscle tissues and the lack of natural muscle contractions that squeeze the blood and push it out of the body, which is the case in the Islamic slaughter method.
Stunning with the captive bolt pistol11:
This pistol fires from its barrel an iron bolt that bounces back to the pistol barrel after hitting the animal's head. The pistol nozzle is placed on the animal's head between its eyes and ears, aiming at his brain. The bolt penetrates the skull of the animal, enters the cranium, and catastrophically damages the cerebrum and the cerebellum.
11 Percussive stunning.
There is a video in circulation in the social media that exposes a secret investigation that has been filmed inside a slaughterhouse in the United States, where a horse was hit on his skull by the captive bolt pistol, but the movement of the horse after that strike showed that it was not fainted and was well aware of the pain. Then the horse was hung from his leg and then stabbed in the neck with a knife, but also the movement of the head of the horse after the stabbing with the knife revealed that it was still aware of all the pain and had not been fainted.
Therefore, stunning with the captive bolt pistol is considered to be a failed method, because it is very painful to the animal, and does not cause unconsciousness in the required sense. Rather, it multiplied the pain of the animal, moreover, the animal may die from that trauma and thus its blood gets clotted inside its body which becomes dangerous to the human consumption.
Worth mentioning, that in many cases, the butcher after hitting the animal with the captive bolt pistol, carry out an act called "Pithing" to destroy the animal’s central nervous system, where he inserts a needle or metal rod into the hole made by the pistol in the skull of the animal, and then he is moving that rod up and down constantly in order to cause the greatest possible destruction of the brain and upper spinal cord aiming to kill the animal.
At the beginning of the process, the animal muscles will contract violently, which means that it is not fainted by the effect of the captive bolt pistol, and then it becomes completely paralyzed due to brain damage and then dies.
Worth mentioning, that both the European Union and the United States have banned the importation of any animals killed by Pithing, because of the effective role of Pithing in the transmission of mad cow disease, because the wire or rod
inserted into the animal's brain pushes parts of its infected brain cells into its body, therefore, the infection be transferred to the other parts of its body. In the United Kingdom, this operation (Pithing) has been criminalized since 2001 for fear of transmission of mad cow disease.
Pithing for a whale
Pithing tool
Worth mentioning, that there is a type of captive bolt pistol that is non-penetrating. It does not cause a hole in the animal’s skull, but its strike is strong enough to break the skull without penetrate it. However, this pistol is less reliable at causing unconsciousness than penetrating types; however, it has undergone a resurgence of popularity due to concerns about mad cow disease.
Gas stunning:
The same video we have mentioned earlier, that has been filmed inside a slaughterhouse in the United States, exposed that how a big number of pigs were crammed into a narrow single cage, where they been exposed to a carbon dioxide. The video exposes how much pain they felt from the long period of suffocation, and how some of them have died from suffocation. Moreover, after they been exposed to this suffocation, they were hanged from their feet and stabbed in the neck, but the movement of some pigs made it clear that the gas was not sufficient to make them unconscious and that they regained their consciousness. Thus, they were first tortured with suffocation and then they been stabbed in the neck.
B) Killing without slaughter:
Islam has greatly protected animal rights. Thus, it legislated slaughter in order humans do not resort throughout history to invent ways to kill the animal, such ways that make the animal to suffer the most severe torture. However, humans have invented many ways to kill animals rather than slaughter, among which are:
Hanging:
Some animal rights activists have posted a video on the internet that exposes a pig been hanged in a farm in the United States. The video shows how pain the pig has suffered from hanging for minutes with a cord that was tied from up in an agricultural tractor until it died.
Burning:
Another video that was filmed in China exposes a cow been burnt whilst it was alive and standing on its feet, where a man
used a gas tube and kept the fire on the back of the cow for minutes and then on its face for minutes with the cow trying to escape from that torment to no avail.
Breaking the neck:
It is used more with poultry, where the neck of the hen is twisted many times until it breaks and the hen dies.
Crushing the head with a stone or hammer:
Where they hit the animal’s head with a stone or hammer to break its skull.
Suffocation:
Where the animals been exposed to a carbon dioxide for several minutes until they die from suffocation.
Electrocution:
Where a strong electric current be sent through the brain of the animal until it dies.
As we see, all of these methods cause the animal's blood not to go outside its body, which poses a threat to human health. Therefore, these methods are forbidden in Islam and it is not permissible to eat the meat of the animal that died through them. The prime condition for making animal’s meat lawful for eating in Islam is that its blood went out of its body.
The Prophet ( صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: “You may eat an animal if it was
slaughtered by any means which causes the blood to gush out, and the Name of Allah has been mentioned immediately before the slaughter. Do not slaughter with bones or Abyssinians knives.”
(Sahîh Al-Bukhâri)
4. Scientifically, the slaughter is the least painful:
Scientific research has stated that slaughter is the least painful for the animal than any other method. The moment of pain is only the moment when the knife moves quickly on the animal's neck. It is a non-conscious moment of the animal, such as someone who injures himself during shaving or even gets injured in a quick accident. But for other methods, scientific research has shown that it is the most painful for animals, because of the defects each of them is characterized with.
5. Slaughter is better than cutting the animal's head:
In a video entitled "The most merciful way to kill a hen" a European woman working in the butcher's profession explained the faster and more merciful way -as she claimed- to kill the hens. She put a chicken in a something like a funnel that was hanged on the wall. The funnel allows the hen's body to pass from its wide higher aperture and it allows only the hen’s head to go out from its small lower aperture. Thus, the hen is in an upside-down position, with her legs up and her head down going out of the lower aperture. Then the woman turned the hen's neck slightly to the left and placed the knife on the side of the hen's neck, then with just one move, she cut the hen’s head.
However, in comparison with that method and the Islamic method of slaughter, Islamic slaughter is better, because the heartbeat in normal condition is 80 beats per minute, and this doesn’t increase except in state of danger, where it reaches to 180 beats per minute, after a nervous signal from the brain to the pituitary gland which is responsible for hormones in the body. But in the case of cutting the head completely, the brain
will not send any signals to the pituitary gland to speed up the heartbeat and accelerate blood flow. Therefore, cutting the head completely is not the best and most healthy way to human.
Since the subject of this book is animal rights, it is enough speaking about Islamic way of slaughter and its benefits, in comparison with other methods of killing. Whoever seeks more information, he can resort to any of the scientific research on this regard that is published on the internet.
It is sufficient to conclude by the saying of the Prophet ( :(صلى الله عليه وسلم
"Whoever has been appointed a judge, has been slaughtered without a knife (i.e. with other mean than a knife)."
(Abu Dawud)
It means that the one who has appointed a judge, he carries a heavy responsibility, which is similar to if his neck was slaughtered by other mean than a knife, and this depict how savage is the slaughter by means other than a knife.
Even at slaughter, the animal has many rights according to the Islamic Sharia (Law), some of these rights are:
1- The right not to see the knife and not to sharpen it before it:
Abd Allah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated: “The Messenger of Allah ( صلى الله عليه وسلم) once passed by a
man who placed his foot on the side of a sheep’s neck and was sharpening his blade while the sheep was looking towards him. So, The Messenger of Allah ( صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, “Why
have you not done it before this (laying it down)? Do you want to make it die for several times?!”
(Al-Hâkim)
2- The right to be slaughtered in the best and most merciful way:
Thus, the knife must be very sharp in order the animal to not feel pain as much as possible during slaughtering.
The Prophet ( صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: “Verily Allah has prescribed Ihsân
(perfection) in all things. Thus, if you kill, kill in the best manner; and if you slaughter, slaughter in the best manner. Let the one of you who wants to slaughter to sharpen his blade well and to not make the animal he slaughters to suffer.”
(Sahîh Muslim)
It was narrated by Qûrra bin Iyyâs: “A man said: “O Messenger of Allah, when I slaughter a sheep I become very merciful to it.” Or he may have said, “When I intend to slaughter a sheep, I feel mercy towards it, so, I don’t slaughter it.” Then the Messenger of Allah ( صلى الله عليه وسلم) said twice,
“If you show mercy to a sheep, Allah will show you mercy as well.”
(Al-Bukhâri in Al-Âdab Al-Mûfrad)
The Prophet ( صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: “Anyone shows mercy, even to a
sparrow during slaughtering it, Allah will show him mercy on the Day of Judgment.”
(As-Sîlsila As-Sahîha)
3. The right not to be driven for slaughtering in an inappropriate way:
Muhâmmad ibn Sirîn narrated that ‘Ûmar (may Allah be pleased with him) saw a man pulling a sheep from its leg to slaughter it, and he said to him: “Woe to you, drive it to death, with the best manner.”
(Reported by Al-Mundhiri and graded it as authentic (Sahîh or Hasan), but Al-Albâni graded it as weak in Daîf At-Targhîb)
Ibn Qudâmah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “He (i.e. the one who intend to slaughter an animal) should not catch it violently, nor should he pull it to slaughter violently, nor slaughter it in the presence of another (animal)”
(Look ‘Awn Al-Ma‘bûd)
4. The right to not be slaughtered in the presence of another animal:
The Muslim Scholars have agreed that it is one of the etiquette of slaughtering: not to slaughter an animal in the presence of another.
(The Encyclopaedia of Jurisprudence (10/221)
Some may wonder about this right; how can the animal have the right not to be slaughtered?!
As we mentioned earlier, the slaughter of an animal must be for a direct benefit for the purpose of food. In a few cases the animal has the right not to be slaughtered, even if it is for food. Some of these cases are:
1. If the owner of the animal has benefited from it a great benefit:
The Prophet ( صلى الله عليه وسلم) said to an owner of a camel: “‘It (the camel)
has told me that you used it for working and transferring the water for years, and now when it became old, you want to slaughter it?!’ The man answered: ‘By the One Who has sent you with Truth as a Prophet, you have said the truth that I wanted to slaughter it. But by the One Who has sent you with Truth, I will not do it.”
(Ahmad)
‘Umrân bin Al-Hasîn reported: “A woman from the Ansâr (the inhabitants of Medina) and Al-‘Adbâ’ (the she-camel of the Prophet ( صلى الله عليه وسلم)) have been captivated (when the
polytheists raided the pasturing animals of Medina). The two hands of the woman had been tied with ropes. The people (who captured the woman) used to leave their camels in front of their houses for rest at night. One night the woman could to untie her hands from the ropes and hasted towards the camels. Whenever she got near any camel, the camel started to make noise, so she left it until
she got near Al-‘Adbâ’. It did not make any noise; it was docile and experienced. She rode upon its back and drove it away and she went off. When they (the polytheists) learned about it, they chased her, but they couldn’t catch her. The woman vowed to Allah, that if He saved her on this camel, she would sacrifice this camel (giving its meat to the poor people). As she reached Medina, the people saw her and they said: ‘Here is Al-‘Adbâ’, the she-camel of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم) ).’ Then the woman told them that she had vowed that if
Allah saved her on its back, she would sacrifice it. The people went to the Prophet ( صلى الله عليه وسلم) and informed him of what
happened. Whereupon the Prophet ( صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: ‘Subhân
Allah (Glory be to Allah)!! How bad is such a reward she wants to reward it!! She vowed to Allah that if He saved her on its back, she would sacrifice it!! A vow to do an act of disobedience (towards Allah), must not be fulfilled, nor a vow to do something over which one has no right or authority!!”
(Sahîh Muslim)
2. If the animal has a continuing benefit:
Abu Hurâira (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “The Prophet ( صلى الله عليه وسلم) went to visit a man from Al-Ansâr12. The man
picked up a knife to slaughter a sheep for the Prophet ( .(صلى الله عليه وسلم
The Messenger of Allah said to him: ‘Don’t slaughter a milch sheep.’.”
(Sahîh ibn Mâjah)
12 The inhabitants of Medina.
Al-Qâdi ‘Aiâd commented on the word “a milch sheep” that it contains an evidence that the pregnant cattle should also not be slaughtered, nor the cattle for plowing.
