Dead Animals: What's Actually Forbidden to Eat?
Islamic Jurisprudence on Dead Animals (Maytah) and Exceptions - Al-Wajeez Lecture
Summary
This lecture continues the discussion of Al-Wajeez, focusing on the eighth and final type of filth (najasah) in Islamic jurisprudence: dead animals (maytah). Sh. Ali Mashhour explains that dead animals are generally impure unless properly slaughtered, but discusses three major exceptions: aquatic animals (which are permissible to eat even if found dead), locusts, and animals without flowing blood (like insects). The lecture covers detailed rulings on permissible and impermissible consumption, including the special status of liver and spleen, and references Prophetic narrations about flies in water and the prohibition against killing certain creatures like bees and ants.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
Alhamdulillah. Continuing in Alwajis and we left off yesterday morning discussing the eighth and final type of neessa of filth that the author has mentioned here in listing the various types of nessa, the various types of filth. And the eighth and final nessa that he mentioned was ala and that is a dead animal. A dead animal meaning even those animals which are otherwise permissible to eat. So a dead chicken, a dead cow, a dead rooster, a dead duck, a dead goose, whatever is permissible to eat, if it has not been slaughtered properly, then it is considered to be dead. Ma. Now this word ma, it has a linguistic meaning. Something is dead. But in this context, it has a very specific meaning. in Islamic legislation. And that is.
[Silence]
Whatever dies without being slaughtered properly, right? And there are some exceptions to this rule. There are namely three exceptions to this rule. So the first exception which we discussed yesterday was one type of ma that is on the land and all ma that is in the sea. So this only applies to land dwelling animals. Animals which are aquatic. All aquatic animals, no matter what they look like, no matter where they reside in fresh water or in salt water, are permissible for a person to eat and they do not need to be slaughtered in the Islamic fashion. Even if a person comes upon them already dead, even if they were caught, killed by you know non-Muslim, any kind of person in any way, it will be permissible to eat, right? So any type of fish whether it has tentacles or whether it has a shell or whether it looks you know no matter what it looks it is permissible to eat. Even if it's a carnivore, even if it is an herbivore, whatever it is, anything that resides in the sea is permissible to eat whether it has been caught live or dead. Right? And the prophet sallall.aii wasallam described the sea, described the water. He said,.
[Silence]
That its water is pure and purifying and its dead is permissible to eat.
[Silence]
The next exempt from that rule of is locust and we discussed this yesterday in detail, right? Locust, a big type of bug, looks almost a grasshopper. They come in swarms, right? , al jar fa the prophet sallall.aii wasallam says in a narration collected by Ahmed in his in his a very well-known narration on the authority of Omar.
[Silence]
He says, , two types of dead and two types of blood are permissible for us to eat. The two types of dead are the aquatic and jar locus. And the two types of blood are the liver and the spleen. The liver and the spleen. These two organs in the animal, they contain a lot of blood. Even in human beings, the liver and the spleen, they are just essentially blood banks, right? And if a person were to try to purge the blood out of these organs entirely before eating them, it would be next to impossible. So the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam has informed us that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has overlooked that even though there is a high amount of blood in the liver and the spleen they are still permissible to eat from any animal which is permissible to eat. The next type of exemption from al-mea from the general rule of the dead a dead animal is.
[Silence]
What? The second is anything that does not have blood that flows through veins a human being or an animal does. And the scholars what they mean by this is animals that are more akin to insects. Right? So bees, , spiders, , ants, you know, flies, mosquitoes, things like that. These things do not have blood that flows, right? And so because of that, the scholars define it as not having blood that flows other animals. And so it is not considered a type of filth. Now notice it is not considered a type of filth. But that doesn't mean that it is necessarily permissible to eat. This is one of the eases that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given us in order to not make things difficult for us. Otherwise, if a person's supposed to keep his clothing and his shoes and his house and so forth clean of you know dead insects, dead ants, dead you know they're making salah etc. This would be very difficult. It'd be very very difficult and so these things are not considered to be u filthy but it's not permissible to eat bees. The prophet sallallah.aii wasallam in prohibited that bees be killed. He prohibited that ants be killed. Right? As well it is not permissible to eat insects. And the evidence that the author cites here for this is a narration which is collected by it's a well-known narration. And.
[Silence]
And so the evidence for this that he cites is an erration on the authority in which the messenger of Allah sallall.aii Wasam said, "If a fly lands in your cup, in your glass of water, in something that you are drinking, then dip it entirely into the water before taking it out and throwing it away." Because on one of its wings there is an illness and on the other wing there is its antidote. Now what is this illness? What is its antidote? Allah. But it's an authentic narration. The prophet sallallah.aii wasallam mentioned that if a fly lands on in in a person's glass of water or what have you, especially if it's hot hot water boiling, right? And you dip it into the water, it's going to die. But it doesn't make it neg right that's the evidence that he's using here and that's the evidence that the scholars of Phil took from this narration and so he is saying that if the fly lands in the water when it lands it always lands with one of its wings up usually he says to dip it in before then taking it out and throwing it away. Why? Because on one of its wings is an illness and on the other wing, the opposite wing is its antidote. What is it? Allah. The prophet sallall.aii wasallam. This is what he commanded. And so this is the evidence that the author uses for this. There is a final third thing which is exempt from al the dead and we the dead animal and we will.
[Arabic recitation]