Home > Islamic Fiqh > Foods and drinks
Everything about foods and drinks: halal and haram, intoxicants, ritual slaughter, hunting, divergent animals and divergent questions (blood, gellala, dead fish). Each page presents the ruling, the evidence and the schools' differences.
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Updated on 06 October 2026 at 10:50 PM
The fiqh of foods rests on one basic rule and a list of prohibitions named by the texts. The encyclopedia presents both, noting for each category the agreement or divergence of the schools.
What Allah has made lawful is lawful, what He has made unlawful is unlawful, and what He has remained silent about is pardoned.reported from Ibn Abbas in Tafsir al-Qurtubi
The Quran states the rule: « Say: I find nothing in what has been revealed to me forbidden to eat for one who wishes to eat it, except carrion, poured-out blood or the flesh of swine » (al-An'am 145). Aisha invoked this same verse about the mouse: « it is not forbidden ». The principle that follows, repeated throughout the encyclopedia: what has not been named forbidden keeps its original permissibility.
The sources converge on the core: carrion, poured-out blood and pork (al-Baqara 173 ; al-An'am 145). Blood is unanimous: the scholars declare it forbidden and impure, whether drunk or otherwise used. Added to these are fanged predatory beasts and taloned birds of prey, based on the hadiths:
The Messenger of Allah forbade eating every fanged beast of prey.al-Bukhari 5210 ; Muslim 1932-1934
These last 2 categories carry a divergence: the Malikis apply no prohibition to any bird, relying on Abu Bakr's word: « all birds, every one of them », and on the Quran's silence.
The basis is the verse: « lawful to you is the game of the sea and its food » (al-Ma'ida 96) and the hadith: « its water is purifying, its dead is lawful ». The majority (Malikis, Shafi'is, Hanbalis) derives from them the lawfulness of everything living in the sea; the Hanafis restrict it to fish proper, excluding what floats dead.
For game and livestock, the rule fits in 2 lines of the encyclopedia: every land animal not among the named prohibitions remains lawful, and no living being may be taken as a target for shooting or killed without use: the Prophet cursed whoever takes a living creature as a target, and the animal must be slaughtered or hunted according to the rules set out in the following pages.
The detailed lists (donkey, horse, hyena, insects, birds of prey) fill the next page; the present outline sets the grid: text named, forbidden; text silent, permitted.
Yes per the jumhur (Malikis, Shafi'is, Hanbalis); Abu Hanifa limits to strict fish: non-fish seafood diverges with him.
Divergence: certified halal gelatin yes; pork-derived avoided by caution; undetermined origin: presumption of lawfulness per the academies, caution recommended (see the additives page).
Yes: the Prophet said 'vinegar is an excellent condiment' (Muslim 2336); vinegar transformation extinguishes intoxication.
Analyze ingredients (E-codes), consult a serious certification body, avoid doubt without generalizing: 'whoever avoids doubt purifies his religion' (al-Bukhari 2051).