The Permissibility of Ahl al-Kitāb's Slaughter in Islamic Jurisprudence: A Critical Analysis in the Context of Contemporary Western Muslim Communities

Abstract The question of whether Muslims residing in Western countries may consume the meat slaughtered by Christians and Jews — collectively designated in Islamic jurisprudence as Ahl al-Kitāb (People of the Book) — constitutes one of the most practically significant yet academically under-examined debates confronting Muslim communities in the United Kingdom and across Europe. The rapid growth of the Muslim population in Western countries, combined with everyday expectations of social participation in multicultural environments, makes this a pressing jurisprudential and pastoral concern. The Qurʾin explicitly permits the food of Ahl al-Kitāb in Sūrat al-Māʾida (5:5), a verse accepted as non-abrogated by the overwhelming consensus of classical and contemporary Muslim scholars. The Prophetic Sunnah further corroborates this permission, as does the practice of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ. All four major Sunnī schools of law — Ḥanafī, Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, and Ḥanbalī — affirm the permissibility of Ahl al-Kitāb slaughter, with varying conditions attached. Yet a striking paradox exists: the majority of Muslims in the United Kingdom and Europe, particularly those of South Asian heritage, routinely avoid non-certified meat in the belief that it is categorically prohibited. This article critically examines the Qurʾinānic and Hadith evidence alongside classical jurisprudential positions, surveys the contemporary fatwā landscape in Western Islamic institutions, and analyses the social, cultural, and commercial factors driving the gap between textual permission and actual community practice. The article concludes that the restriction prevalent among Western Muslims is primarily cultural and identity-driven rather than grounded in authoritative jurisprudential evidence, and calls for renewed scholarly engagement with Muslim communities on this important and practically consequential question. Keywords: Ahl al-Kitāb, ḥalāl, Islamic jurisprudence, food law, Western Muslims, United Kingdom, fatwā, fiqh, slaughter, Qurʾān, Sūrat al-Māʾida