An-Nahl (The Bee)

115. “Verily He has forbidden for you only carrion, blood, swine flesh, and whatever has other (name), than Allah’s, been invoked upon it. But whoever is forced (to eat them by necessity), not desiring, nor (willfully) transgressing (the limit), then Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.”

As the previous holy verses dealt with the good Divine blessings and the gratitude which is due and outstanding for them, this verse refers to the truly forbidden cases of blessings and the untrue forbidden ones which had been brought about in the religion of Allah through innovation owning to certain heretical views, all of which is done to complement the circle.

Firstly, the Qur’an says:

“Verily He has forbidden for you only carrion, blood, swine flesh, and whatever has other (name), than Allah’s, been invoked upon it…”

However, the infection generated by the first three cases nowadays is not unknown to the public today. The corpses of animals are the sources of all kinds of microbes, and one’s blood is more prone to the activities of the microbes than other parts of the body, while pork is a factor in itself for several dangerous diseases.

As for those animals which are slaughtered in the names of other than ‘Allah’, their philosophy for being forbidden does not concern sanitary reasons, but there are ethical and spiritual considerations involved, for, on the one hand, they constitute a campaign against paganism and the worshipping of the idols and, on the other hand, they form the basis for focusing one’s attention to the Almighty, the Creator of such blessings.

Incidentally, summing up the content of this verse and the following verses, we can infer this point that Islam opts for moderation with regard to the consumption of meat.

It neither rejects this source of nutrition altogether as in the case of vegetarians; nor does it commend it outright in the case of the people of the Age of Ignorance or in the case of some of our so-called civilized contemporaries who approve of all kinds of meat (including even the meat of crocodiles and crabs as well as worms).

In conclusion, as is the case with the Qur’anic method in many aspects, it explains the exceptional circumstances, saying that but those who are obliged (that is, they are required to eat certain forbidden meat to stay alive while in danger in a desert) if they do not exceed the limits in eating, Allah will forgive them for He is Compassionate and Merciful.

The verse says:

“…But whoever is forced (to eat them by necessity), not desiring, nor (willfully) transgressing (the limit), then Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.”

Explanations

The contents of this noble verse are also repeated in Suras of Al-’An‘am and An-Nahl, which are Meccan, and in Suras of Al-Baqarah and Al-Ma’idah which are Medinan.

The Arabic term /’ihlal/, derived from /hil al/ means raising one’s voice when seeing the crescent of the moon. As the pagans, when slaughtering animals, used to invoke the name of the idols with a loud voice, this action of theirs has been termed /’ihlal/.

Certain foodstuffs have been banned in this verse, but they are not confined to these only. On the contrary, there are certain other cases named by the blissful Prophet (S) which we must take into consideration according to the recommendation of the Qur’an itself.

Banning certain things are only in His Own authority and no one is entitled to ban or to make lawful (halal) anything by himself or on the basis of superstitions and hallucinations.

The rationale for banning certain foodstuffs is not based solely on the sanitation and material issues; but, distancing oneself from the spiritual vices, like paganism, is also another criterion.