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Taking Allah'S Name On Food – Sura Anaam 118-121
In the translation of sura anaam ayahs 118-121, every scholar has mentioned the word animals and slaughter and that too without brackets. However in Arabic, there is no mention of the word Animal. The translation of 6:118 for example is presented as:
So [you people should not pay heed and] if you believe in His revelations, then [without any hesitation] eat animals that have been slaughtered by pronouncing the name of God
However, literal translation perhaps should have been:
So [you people should not pay heed and] if you believe in His revelations, then [without any hesitation] eat on which Gods name has been pronounced
If correct, this completely changes the meaning of what is being said.
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Taking Allah'S Name On Food – Sura Anaam 118-121
updated 1 month ago
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It has always been a well-established practice that Allah’s name is invoked specifically during the slaughtering of animals. Because of this, it was implicitly understood that it wasn’t necessary to explicitly state that the name of Allah is pronounced over animals. This differs from saying “Bismillah” before eating, as the ceremonial invocation of Allah’s name is reserved exclusively for the act of slaughtering animals. There was no question about eating a meal on which Allah’s name is pronounced or not.
The question was only about the animals that were slaughtered both in the name of Allah and in the name of deities. Here the distinction is made that only those animals can be eaten on which Allah’s name is invoked.
Moreover, the word in the same verse: وَقَدْ فَصَّلَ لَكُم مَّا حَرَّمَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِلَّا مَا اضْطُرِرْتُمْ إِلَيْهِ indicates that it is about the animals because the verses it alludes to are about animals. See, 2: 173
إِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَيْتَةَ وَالدَّمَ وَلَحْمَ الْخِنزِيرِ وَمَا أُهِلَّ بِهِ لِغَيْرِ اللَّهِ ۖ فَمَنِ اضْطُرَّ غَيْرَ بَاغٍ وَلَا عَادٍ فَلَا إِثْمَ عَلَيْهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
However, the meals other than meat, on which the name of some other deity or person is pronounced is haram too, for the same reason.
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One could argue that translators just inserted the word which is not there in Arabic at all without even putting it in parenthesis. There is food other than meat as well on which name of other deity is pronounced as in your reply as well, and Allah could have very easily specified that its about animals as He did in other places. The ayat you have qouted 2:173 also talks about not eating if anyone elses name is invoked and this is also an interpretation that surah anaam ayat refers solely to 2:173.
Even in translation of 5:4 interpretation has been added:
“So, eat of what they catch for you [289] and [before you let loose the animal to catch the prey,] pronounce upon it the name of God”.
Without the words in bracket it could simply mean pronounce the name of God before eating.
The key problem which keeps bugging me is that if we read the original text without our biases and interpretations by translators, the meaning could be very different. Perhaps it would be better to call these interpretation rather than changing the translation. Reading without preconceived biases is an asool I picked from Ghamidi sbs explanation on reading ayahs about covering one self and whether it includes covering face or not.
Anyways, jazakAllah for the time to answer
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