Hadith 10 of Nawawi: Default Permissibility of Food and Rulings on Meat

He (RH) said:

Hadith Ten: On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (RA),

who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“Indeed, Allah ﷻ is Pure and does not accept except what is pure.

And indeed, Allah ﷻ has commanded the believers as He commanded the Messengers,

for He said: “O Messengers, eat of the good things and perform righteous deeds.”

And He said: “O you...

“O you who have believed, eat from the good [i.e., lawful] things which We have provided for you and be grateful to Allāh if it is [indeed] Him that you worship.” (Quran 2:172)

...We have provided you.' He then mentioned a man who journeyed far, disheveled and dusty, raising his hands: 'O Lord!'

...yet his food, drink, and clothing are unlawful, and he was nourished on the unlawful—how can he be answered?

Yes, this is the rule. This Hadith is one of the foundations of the religion, upon which Islam—or the rulings of Islam—revolve.

This indicates a number of universal principles. Among these principles is that this Hadith shows us that...

...the default state of physical entities is permissibility.

So the default state of foodstuffs and physical entities is permissibility.

I used the term 'physical entities' because some scholars differentiate between actions and physical entities,

as is the method of Abu al-Wafa Ibn Aqil, who distinguished between the default of entities and of actions.

The correct view is that the default for both is permissibility,

so the default for contracts and physical entities, whether food, drink, or...

mounts, or other things, is permissibility.

Yes, some of the scholars...

...stated a rule—and I will mention this rule briefly just to clarify it.

Some of the scholars say that the default state regarding meat is prohibition.

They do not mean, when saying that the default state regarding meat is prohibition, in terms of its genus,

but rather they mean that the default state regarding meat is prohibition due to the absence of its condition.

Namely, if someone doubts a meat,

whose type is known, but they do not know whether this meat is permissible or forbidden, such as a giraffe,

for no specific text exists regarding the giraffe,

so we say the default is permissibility, and thus it is permissible to eat it.

But whoever doubts the meat due to the absence of its condition,

such as whether the name of Allah ﷻ was pronounced over it,

with no apparent sign it is from the slaughter of Muslims or People of the Book?

Then the default rule is prohibition, like one who finds meat in a desert, or in a land with both People of the Book and idolaters.

There is neither apparent sign nor certainty; the default, due to the absent condition, is prohibition. We must distinguish.

This is what Ibn al-Qayyim (RH) noted in some of his books—I believe it is Al-Miftah.

This is the first rule.

The second rule is that this Hadith...

...shows us that means take the ruling of their ends, for the Prophet ﷺ said: 'Allah ﷻ is Pure and accepts only the pure.'

And among what this Hadith indicates is what relates to supplication, which we will discuss later.

Yes, ﷺ.