The Grand Ayatollah Sistani Fatwas About “Meat”

Question: What kind of marine animals are Halal?

Question 1: Is Kosher meat Halal?

Question 2: Can I eat Christians’ foods that contain meat?

Question 3: Are chickens slaughtered by Christians Halal?

Question 4: On the package of meat that is produced in Muslim countries by non-Muslim companies, it says, “slaughtered according to Islamic laws”. Are we allowed to eat that meat? Can we eat that meat, if it comes from Muslim companies in non-Muslim countries? And what is the ruling, if the source is non-Muslim company from a non-Muslim country?

Question 5: We enter some supermarkets in Europe and find meat in tin containers produced by a European company with the writing on the package that conveys the sense of it being “Halal” or “slaughtered according to Islamic laws”. Is it permissible to buy and eat such meat?

Question 6: Meat companies slaughter a large number of chickens at one time [that is, simultaneously]. Now if the person running the slaughtering machine is a Muslim, who says Takbír and says the name of Allah (SWT) only once at the time of slaughtering all the chicken [simultaneously], is it permissible for us to eat those chickens? If we have doubt about these chickens being Halal, can we [ignore that doubt and] eat them and consider them pure (Tahir)?

Question 7: Is it permissible to buy meat thinking that it is slaughtered according to Islamic laws from a supermarkets owned by a Muslim who [also] sells alcoholic drinks?

Question 8: At times we find the name or picture of fish on the cans and come to know that the fish is a scale fish. So, is it permissible for us to rely on the name or the picture in determining the category of fish, knowing well that a wrong statement of this kind would put the manufacturers in great loss or even more serious [situation] than just a loss?

Question 9: Is it permissible to eat lobster, in all its varieties, by following the pattern of shrimp?

Question 10: Is it permissible to buy a fish from a Muslim who is not a Shi‘a while we have no knowledge whether it is from the category of scale fish or not?

Question 11: Is it permissible to eat Halal food which has been steam cooked with the steam of meat not slaughtered according to Islamic Laws?