Article on Zabiha

Zabiha-Meat Madness by Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf there is no doubt that there is great confusion regarding the permissibility of meats in certain countries, especially in the United States, and regarding what is lawful and what is unlawful to consume. Adding to this confusion are some of the terms used in the process. Halal and Zabiha Once while dining at a person’s house in the US, the host pointed out to a guest from the UK that a particular dish on the table was zabiha and that another was Halāl. The bewildered guest had never heard of the term zabiha used in this context. Literally, zabiha (more accurately written, dhabīha) means “slaughtered animal.” Was not all Halāl meat, the guest wondered, supposed to be slaughtered according to a particular rite, and thus qualify as zabiha? Why was the host then calling one dish zabiha and the other “only Halāl”? Could it be that zabiha meant something else? Maybe it was a Judaic or Christian term and this meat had been purchased from a non-Muslim source. Or did it mean super- or ultra-Halāl meat of sorts, or perhaps signify some kind of organic meat? One of the local guests clarified, explaining that some people in the US use the term zabiha for meat slaughtered by a Muslim.
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