VIRUS SARS‑CoV‑2 that causes Covid-19 is believed to originate from wildlife sold in a wet market of Wuhan, China.
Although China prohibits the sale of wild animals, a report on 29 June 2002 by Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, BBC journalist in Beijing alleged that “eating exotic and wild species is as old as China itself.” In Shanghai 1,000 tons of snakes are consumed annually, while the city of Nanning boasts delicacies of turtle, cobra, owl, hawk, monkey, bear, civet cat and pangolin.
The United States of America is the biggest importer of China’s wildlife like fox and otter, ingredients used in medicinal recipe.
Due to man’s desiring exotic meats, Covid-19 pandemic has killed almost 4 million souls and infected nearly 180 million people globally.
To prevent the next zoonotic pandemic, there is a useful guidance in Islam on diet, cleanliness and health. Many verses of the Qur’an identify lawful food with what is “tayyib”, meaning clean, pure, nutritious and wholesome foodstuff. “O believers, eat of the good things (tayyibāt) which We have provided for you, and be grateful to Allah, if it is only Him that you worship” [2:172]; “Eat of the things which Allah has provided for you, lawful (halal) and wholesome (tayyib); and fear Allah, in Whom you are believers” [5:88]; “what is left (lawful) by Allah is better for you (than unlawful one), if you are true believers” [11:86].
It is significant that the very last revelation which affirmed the perfection of Islam [5:3] came just after verses explaining permissible foods. Professor Dr Hamidullah, thus, concluded that consuming nutriment which is lawful, pure and wholesome is a lynchpin of civilisation striking right into heart and soul, while eating illicit and harmful food is toxic to spiritual mind and cultured life.
The Prophet exhorted that “seeking lawful provision is obligatory on every Muslim.” The great al-Ghazali (d. 1111), hence, devoted one specific chapter “On What is Lawful and Unlawful” in his celebrated work Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din, explicating that illicit food includes those gotten from abuse of power and corruption. The chapter was translated by Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, a scholar of Islamic finance in the USA, and published as 354-page work titled Al-Ghazali on the Lawful and the Unlawful: Book XIV of the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2014).
Islam forbids things damaging and harmful to life, health and intellect, like intoxicant, hashish, opium, henbane, poison, and glass. It is unlawful to eat carrion; filth such as blood, urine and excrement; dog and swine; an animal offered to an idol or strangled or had its neck wrung to death, or died of a fall from a height or of a wound from the horns of another animal, or had been torn up by some other beast [the Qur’an, 5:4; 2:173; 6:145; 16:115].
However, there is exception for he who is forced by necessity, such as worsening illness or losing life, and left with no choice other than eating unlawful food; he may then eat the necessary minimum enough to survive.
The Prophet forbade eating donkey and mule. Unlawful too, are predatory animals that prey with fangs or tusks and birds which hunt with talons. Examples of the former are the lion, lynx, leopard, wolf, bear, simians, elephant and weasal; of the latter, the falcon, hawk and kite.
It is unlawful in Syariah Law to eat amphibian such as frog and reptilian such as crocodile. Also forbidden is to consume disgusting small animals such as ants, flies, cockroaches and scorpions. The Prophet has especially prohibited the killing of ants, bees, hoopoes and sparrow-hawks (recorded in Mishkat al-Masabih). Apparently, animals whose flesh is not eaten or unlawful, and beasts who present no danger are not allowed to be killed.
Islamic approach in discriminating wholesome foods from harmful ones is based on integrated knowledge comprising sound religious sciences and zoology. Murtada al-Zabidi (d. 1791) referred to work by Ahmad b. al-‘Imad al-Aqfahsi entitled Kitab fi ma yahillu min al-Hayawanat wa ma la yahillu (Book on the Lawful and Unlawful Animals).
An even more renowned compendium is by a zoologist-cum-jurist Muhammad b. Musa al-Damiri (d. 1405), titled Hayat al-Hayawan. This para-zoological encyclopaedia includes dietary rules on approximately 1,000 animals. Its abridgement by the prolific Jalaluddin al-Suyuti (d. 1505) is titled Diwan al-Hayawan.
Animals which are slaughtered must be treated with utmost kindness and best hygienic practises. The Prophet said, “Allah has decreed that everything should be accomplished in a good way; so, when you kill, use a good method; and when you cut an animal’s throat, you should utilise a good method, for each of you should sharpen his knife and give the animal as little pain as possible” (Mishkat al-Masabih). Slaughtering with the use of teeth and nails is not allowed, as this inflicts too much pain (narrated by al-Nasa’i). The Prophet forbade using a catapult: “Flinging stones will not hunt the game…but it may break a tooth or gouge out an eye” (narrated by Bukhari).