An important matter for chicken-sellers

Darulifta Ahlesunnat

(Dawateislami)

Question

    What do the scholars of Islam and Muftis of the blessed Shari’ah guide regarding the ruling that we supply the chicken to particular tikka shops. We need Islamic guidance on the procedure we follow. This is the procedure we follow:

    We slaughter the hen with our hand as per Islamic Law. After the hen loses its life, we dip it into warm water. After a few moments, we take it out and remove all its feathers and hair from its body with the assistance of a machine. Then we remove all the filth from the inside. We wash [the meat] with the water flowing with pressure and cut it into four (4) pieces. The following questions:

    After slaughtering, is it permissible to dip the chicken into warm water or not? (The chicken is dipped into warm water so that its hair and feathers become softer and it becomes easy to remove them. Otherwise, it is very difficult to remove them. It is kept in warm water just for a few moments, due to which the water does not reach the meat. It is harmful for us if the warm water reaches the meat, as whichever part the warm water will reach, it will spoil & ruin that part and change the colour of the meat).

    Is it permissible to eat the skin of chicken or not? The only purpose of removing feathers of chicken is that its skin is maintained, as its skin is tasty and delicious in the tikka.

بِسْمِ اللہِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِیْمِ

اَلْجَوَابُ بِعَوْنِ الْمَلِکِ الْوَھَّابِ اَللّٰھُمَّ ھِدَایَۃَ الْحَقِّ وَالصَّوَابِ

    The question represents that the purpose of dipping the slaughtered chicken in warm water is not to boil it but to heat its apparent skin up for the roots of its feathers and hair to soften and loosen, so that they can easily be removed - there is no harm in this. Lukewarm water is enough for this. In case the water is at its boiling temperature, dip the chicken in it for as long as the roots of hair and feather of chicken soften and loosen - do not keep it more than this. Then after removing hair and filth, the meat can be used after washing it thrice, as it will now be pure and Halal [lawful]. The ruling of washing it thrice is because when the chicken is dipped in water, the flowing blood on its neck makes the water impure. Similarly, that water goes inside the chicken, mixes with the impurity and droppings, and becomes impure itself and also makes the outer surface of the meat impure.

    Moreover, it is not essential that one must to wash it (chicken) three times to make it pure, but by making an abundant quantity of water flow on it and releasing pure water on it; if you have strong opinion certain about the purity, even then the chicken will become pure. Remember, do not keep the slaughtered chicken in the boiling water for so long that the water is absorbed into the internal components of the meat. If the meat is kept for so long, it will become impure as the impurity will become absorbed in the meat. Then, it will never become pure in any condition and eating it will never be permissible.

    To avoid the difficulty, an easy way is that after slaughtering the chicken, clean the blood from the neck of chicken, slit the stomach and remove the filth. Then dip it into the warm water so that it does not need to be washed to make it pure.

    Eating the skin of slaughtered chicken as well as the skin of every slaughtered Halāl animal is permissible.

وَاللہُ اَعْلَمُ عَزَّوَجَلَّ وَرَسُوْلُہ اَعْلَم صَلَّی اللّٰہُ تَعَالٰی عَلَیْہِ وَاٰلِہٖ وَسَلَّم

Answered by : Abu Sa’eed Muhammad Naveed Raza ‘Attari

Verified by: Mufti Fuzail Raza Attari