After Allah mentioned the filthy things that He prohibited for His believing servants
and the good things that He allowed for them, He said next,
﴿الْيَوْمَ أُحِلَّ لَكُمُ الطَّيِّبَـتُ﴾
(Made lawful to you this day are At-Tayyibat.) Allah then mentioned the ruling concerning
the slaughtered animals of the People of the Book, the Jews and Christians,
﴿وَطَعَامُ الَّذِينَ أُوتُواْ الْكِتَـبَ
حِلٌّ لَّكُمْ﴾
(The food of the People of the Scripture is lawful to you..) meaning, their slaughtered
animals, as Ibn `Abbas, Abu Umamah, Mujahid, Sa`id bin Jubayr, `Ikrimah, `Ata',
Al-Hasan, Makhul, Ibrahim An-Nakha`i, As-Suddi and Muqatil bin Hayyan stated. This
ruling, that the slaughtered animals of the People of the Book are permissible for
Muslims, is agreed on by the scholars, because the People of the Book believe that
slaughtering for other than Allah is prohibited. They mention Allah's Name upon
slaughtering their animals, even though they have deviant beliefs about Allah that
do not befit His majesty. It is recorded in the Sahih that `Abdullah bin Mughaffal
said, "While we were attacking the fort of Khaybar, a person threw a leather bag
containing fat, and I ran to take it and said, `I will not give anyone anything
from this container today.' But when I turned I saw the Prophet (standing behind)
while smiling.'' The scholars rely on this Hadith as evidence that we are allowed
to eat what we need of foods from the booty before it is divided. The scholars of
the Hanafi, the Shafi`i and the Hanbali Madhhabs rely on this Hadith to allow eating
parts of the slaughtered animals of the Jews that they prohibit for themselves,
such as the fat. They used this Hadith as evidence against the scholars of the Maliki
Madhhab who disagreed with this ruling. A better proof is the Hadith recorded in
the Sahih that the people of Khaybar gave the Prophet a gift of a roasted leg of
sheep, which they poisoned. The Prophet used to like eating the leg of the sheep
and he took a bite from it, but it told the Prophet that it was poisoned, so he
discarded that bite. The bite that the Prophet took effected the palate of his mouth,
while Bishr bin Al-Bara' bin Ma`rur died from eating from that sheep. The Prophet
had the Jewish woman, Zaynab, who poisoned the sheep, killed. Therefore, the Prophet
and his Companions wanted to eat from that sheep and did not ask the Jews if they
removed what the Jews believed was prohibited for them, such as its fat. Allah's
statement,
﴿وَطَعَامُكُمْ حِلٌّ لَّهُمْ﴾
(and your food is lawful to them.) means, you are allowed to feed them from your
slaughtered animals. Therefore, this part of the Ayah is not to inform the People
of the Scriptures that they are allowed to eat our food -- unless we consider it
information for us about the ruling that they have -- i. e, that they are allowed
all types of foods over which Allah's Name was mentioned, whether slaughtered according
to their religion or otherwise. The first explanation is more plausible. So it means:
you are allowed to feed them from your slaughtered animals just as you are allowed
to eat from theirs, as equal compensation and fair treatment. The Prophet gave his
robe to `Abdullah bin Ubayy bin Salul, who was wrapped with it when he died. They
say that he did that because `Abdullah had given his robe to Al-`Abbas when Al-`Abbas
came to Al-Madinah. As for the Hadith,
«لَا تَصْحَبْ إِلَّا مُؤْمِنًا، وَلَا
يَأْكُلْ طَعَامَكَ إِلَّا تَقِي»
(Do not befriend but a believer, nor should other than a Taqi (pious person) eat
your food.), This is to encourage such behavior, and Allah knows best.
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