Zabh Meaning

ẔABḤ (ذبح‎). Heb. ‏זֶבַח‎ zebak͟h. Arabic lexicographers define the word to mean the act of cutting the throat. In the language of the law, it denotes the act of slaying an animal agreeably to the prescribed forms, without which its flesh is not lawful for the food of man. See Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 167, 168:—

“Eat of the good things wherewith we have provided you, and give thanks unto God, if ye are His worshippers. He has only forbidden for you that which is dead, and blood, and flesh of swine, and whatsoever has been consecrated to other than God; but he who is forced, neither revolting nor transgressing, it is no sin for him: for verily God is forgiving and merciful.”

The injunctions in the Traditions are more explicit (Mishkāt, book xviii. ch. i.), for example: Abū T̤ufail relates that ʿAlī was once asked, “Has the Prophet ever told you anything with regard to religion which he has not told others?” And ʿAlī replied, “Nothing, unless it be that which I have in the scabbard of my sword.” Then ʿAlī brought out of his scabbard a piece of paper, and thereon was written: “May God curse those who slay without repeating the name of God, in the same manner as the polytheists did in the names of their idols; may God curse those who remove their neighbours’ landmarks; may God curse those who curse their fathers; may God curse those who harbour innovators in matters of religion.”

According to Sunnī law, ẕabḥ is of two kinds: (1) Ik͟htiyārī, of choice; and (2) Iẓt̤irārī, of necessity.

The first is effected by cutting the throat above the breast and reciting the words Allāhu akbar, “God is most great”; and the second by reciting these words upon shooting an arrow or discharging a gun.

The latter act, however, is merely a substitute for the former, and accordingly is not of any account unless the former be impracticable; for the proper ẕabḥ is held to be by the shedding of blood, and the former method is most effectual for this purpose.

It is absolutely necessary that the person who slays the animal should be a Muslim or a kitābī (i.e. a Jew or a Christian), and that he should do it in the name of God alone; it signifies not whether the person be a man or a woman, or an infant, or an idiot, or an uncircumcised person.

An animal slain by a Magian is unlawful, as also that slain by an idolater or a polytheist. Ẕabḥ performed by an apostate from the Muslim faith (who is worthy of death) is also unlawful; but, according to Abū Ḥanīfah, if a Jew or a Christian become an apostate from his own creed, his ẕabḥ is lawful, for the Muslim law still regards him, with respect to ẕabḥ, in the same light as formerly.

If the slayer wilfully omit the invocation, “In the name of the most great God,” the flesh of the animal is unlawful; but if he omit the invocation through forgetfulness, it is lawful, although there is some difference of opinion on this subject amongst the Sunnī doctors. Ash-Shāfiʿī is of opinion that the animal is lawful in either case, but the Imām Mālik maintains that it is unlawful in both.

Abū Yūsuf and all the Ḥanafī doctors have declared, that an animal slain under a wilful omission of the invocation is utterly unlawful, and that the magistrate must forbid the sale of meat so killed.

It is a condition of ẕabḥ ik͟htiyārī that the invocation be pronounced over the animal at the time of slaying it; but in the case of ẕabḥ iẓt̤irārī (i.e. when a person slays an animal in hunting), the condition is that the invocation be pronounced at the time of letting loose the hound or hawk, or of shooting the arrow or gun, or casting the spear.

It is a condition of ẕabḥ that nothing but the invocation Bismi ʾllāhi Allāhi akbar, “In the name of God, God the most great,” should be said. That is, no prayer or other matter must be mentioned.

The place for slaying is betwixt the throat and the head of the breast-bone (Arabic labbah), and the vessels it is requisite to cut are four, al-hulqūm, “the wind-pipe,” al-marīʾ, “the gullet,” and al-warīdān, or al-wadajān, “the two jugular veins.”

Ash-Shāfiʿī holds that if a man slay an animal with a nail or horn or teeth, the flesh is unlawful, but this is not the opinion of other doctors. (See Durru ʾl-Muk͟htār and Hidāyah, in loco.)