Now Registering for March 2009 - Learn Arabic Online!

Visit our Partner Sites Learn Arabic Online Unparalleled online Classes in classical Arabic taught in real time by traditionally trained western born instructors www.shariahprogram.ca Arabic Alphabet Complete Tutorial for those wishing the learn the Arabic alphabet! www.ShariahProgram.ca Free Website Templates Free Website Template Resources to Suit all your graphic needs www.websitetemplate.org Homeschooling Resources Comprehensive Directory of hard to find homeschooling resources www.shamlu.org

The Answer, and from His is the truth and rectitude. The conditions for an Islamic slaughter are as follows: 1) The slaughterer’s being Muslim. 2) That Allah’s name is taken at the time of slaughter. 3) That the throat, windpipe and jugular veins are cut. If a single one of these conditions is not meant, the slaughter could not be considered Islamic. It is understood from the methods of machine cuts presented in the question that the machine does not slaughter all of the chickens at once, but rather one after the other.

In this situation, if a Muslim presses the button (to activate the machine) saying bismillah, the first chicken slaughtered would become halal whilst the following chickens to be slaughtered by (the machine activated) that initial pressing of the button would be haram. This is because in such a situation, it is (still) imperative that bismillah be pronounced prior to the slaughter of each chicken. Merely standing close to the machine and saying Allahu Akbar or, similarly, simply placing a hand on the machine would not be sufficient to render the animal slaughtered halal.

As for the needs that you expressed, a non-Islamic slaughter cannot on those grounds be termed an Islamic slaughter when these needs can be fulfilled within Islamic boundaries. For instance, machines that only constrain the chickens could be used while people conduct the slaughter with knives uttering bismillah separately on every chicken and then other machines could be utilised for cleaning purposes. There are, in fact, such plants in operation in some countries.

In the course of a permissible slaughter if the chicken is fully decapitated this act would be makruh (reprehensible) but consumption of the chicken would be halal.

It has been mentioned in ad-Durr al-Mukhtaar:

…and it is tasmiyah prior to slaughter uninterrupted by a change of activity that it is countable, to the extent that if one was to place two goats one on the other and then slaughter them in a single act they would both become halal, to the contrary of if he were to slaughter them one after the other since, as the act is [now] more than one, so must the tasmiyah be. (ash-Shaami , v5, p212 Kitaabu ’dh-Dhabaa`ih)

And it comes in al-Hidayah:

and [tasmiyah] at the time of slaughter upon the animal to be slaughtered is a condition…to the extent that if one laid an animal down and recited tasmiyah over it and then slaughtered another animal with that tasmiyah [intended for the first animal], it would not be permissible. (al-Hidaayah v2., p436)

And also:

One who cuts through to the nukhaa’ or severs the head, this would be makruh for him to do, though the slaughtered animal would be eaten. (al-Hidayah, v2., p438, Kitaabu ’dh-Dhabaa`ih)

And Allah knows best

Ihsanullah

Verified by Mufti Taqi Uthmani

Darul Iftaa, Darul Uloom Karachi, Pakistan

[Source: Halal Monitoring Committee ]