Ṭayyib and Khabīth: The Qurʾān's Own Terms

The matter can be looked at again from the beginning: what is ḥalāl, what is ḥarām, and when does an animal become ḥalāl? The word used is zakāh, and zakāh is in fact to purify an animal: how does an animal become pure for consumption? In other words, it is zabīḥah. There are circumstances of involuntary zabīḥah, and there is the ikhtiyārī — the voluntary, deliberate — zabīḥah which must be performed; and once those matters are taken up, the question of slaughter by the People of the Book, and of what is permissible in it and what is not, is brought in for fuller and more detailed discussion. Wherever Allah (swt) refers to the edible animals in the Qurʾān, and in the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and the sharīʿah in particular, they are found to be part of the ṭayyibāt, the pure; and the animals which Islam prohibits — the birds, the domestic and the non-domestic, the wild ones — are prohibited because they are referred to as khabīthāt, the impure. Allah (swt) says in Sūrat al-Aʿrāf, in verse 156:^****

Allah (swt) says to the Prophet (peace be upon him): O Prophet, enjoin upon them what is maʿrūf — what sound-minded people recognise, what the sharīʿah dictates, obliges and commands, something that makes sense — and prohibit them from munkar, that which is evil, sharif,^***** harmful, what sound-minded people and the sharīʿah declare harmful to a person; and also command them to consume only the ṭayyibāt, the pure and ḥalāl, and ask them to shun, to keep away from, the khabāʾith — khabāʾith being the plural, the impure things, the impure animals. Were a person to study and really analyse why Allah (swt) prohibited the eating of an elephant, a lion, a donkey or a snake, he would find that they are classified as khabīthāt either by their nature or because of the things they do; and looking at the animals that are eaten and consumed, he would find that they are ṭayyib — beneficial and nutritious. They feed on seeds, on grass and vegetation, which is beneficial to them and beneficial in turn to those who eat them. This is the nature of the khabīthāt and of the ṭayyibāt, and it is explained in more detail in the part that follows, so that this beautiful dīn, this way of life, goes on being learned — the farāʾiḍ, the compulsory things in Islam — and no mistakes are made when a person is confronted with such options and choices, but he is well informed, and becomes a practising, conscientious Muslim. May Allah (swt) increase beneficial knowledge.