The Proof from the Hadith

Is there ṣaḥīḥ ḥadīth on the question as well? There is a great deal, in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī among other collections. Narrated by Anas ibn Mālik (may Allah be pleased with him): after the conquest of Khaybar, a Jewish woman brought a poisoned, roasted, cooked sheep to the Prophet (peace be upon him) as a gift. He ate from it, and his companions ate from it as well.

In a longer version of this hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon him) called the woman and all the elders of the Jews together and said: Jibrīl al-Amīn has told me that this is poisoned — you have poisoned this sheep. She said the sheep was a good one; he told her she was lying, that it was a poisoned sheep, until she admitted it: yes, it is poisoned. Asked why she had done this, she said: we wanted to know whether you are a true prophet of Allah, Yā Abā al-Qāsim — if you were, Allah would tell you it was poisoned and you would not eat it, and if you were a liar, we would be rid of you. When this became known, the companions asked, shall we kill her, Yā Rasūlallāh? He said no.

Some of the ʿulamāʾ hold that the poison remained with him for the rest of his life, and that his death, years afterward, owed something to it — the view of some of the ʿulamāʾ, not a settled matter. What matters here is that the Prophet (peace be upon him) ate from this meat — meat brought by a Jewish woman, one of the Ahl al-Kitāb. The reference is Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, volume three, Kitāb al-Hibah, the Book of Gifts, ḥadīth number 786.

Also in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī is a ḥadīth narrated by ʿAbdullāh ibn Mughaffal (may Allah be pleased with him): during the siege of Khaybar, someone from the fortress threw something out near him, wrapped up — meat, in large pieces, and perhaps other food besides. Hungry as they all were, he wanted to take it, but felt too embarrassed to do so, since Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) was also looking at it, and his own adab held him back. In the version found in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, when Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) saw him looking at it, he looked at him in turn and smiled — an approving smile. In the ziyādah, the addition, of Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī, Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) told him: you may have that, you may eat it. So he took it and ate it — meat, again, from the Jews. The practice of eating meat slaughtered by Ahl al-Kitāb was thus also the practice of the Ṣaḥāba, of the Tābiʿūn, and of the generations after them.