Eating Shia halal

[Street Scholar]

Salaam what do we do here:

1. We go to a restaurant or butcher that we suspect of being Shia, like an Iranian place. Do we assume the meat is halal per sunni Islam?

2. Similarly what about going to a known Shia place and eating there.

I ask this because I have heard we shouldn't make blanket takfir on them as some have beliefs that are acceptable although most do not.

JazakAllah khair

[Saad]

Zabiha of Isna Ashari Shias [Rawafid/Twelvers] is not halal. Tafdheeli Shias are considered Muslim, hence their zabiha would be halal.

Fatwa of Imam Ahl Sunnah Allamah Abdul Shakoor Lukhnawi [r.h] who was an expert on Shias, up there with the likes of Imam Shah Abdul Aziz [r.h] and Hafiz ibn Taymiyah [r.h].

[abu rayhaan]

Assalamu alaikum

Is that a reliable fatwa? I ask because you rank him "up there" with "Ibn Taymiyyah" and the latter hardly held Islamic beliefs? What I mean by that is the belief of ascribing a body and so on to Allaah.

I agree you cannot blanket takfir on anyone. You will also find amongst those who call themselves sunni, some are problematic in their beliefs, so what about their meat?

The shia ithna asheri, of which I have friends, all believe in Allaah, the One God, who is not a body nor confined to a place or time, and they all, with no exception, believe that our master Muhammad was the final Prophet and Messenger of Allaah, the best of creation and the highest in rank and knowledge of all people. Is this belief not enough to make one a Muslim? Supporting this belief and being against what is contrary to it is what makes one Muslim.

Ofcourse in saying that I'm not saying that shias and sunnis are the same and alike. I find it particularly bizzare also because do you not consider the meat of the Jews and Christians, who are actually outright kuffar, to be halal, and yet those who are different yet have the same core belief and follow The Qur'an are problematic?

And if all of this is still not enough, consider that actually, unless you are in a shia dominated country, the meat is likely to have been slaughtered by sunni Muslims anyway and bought originally from sunni butchers even if they are cooked and served in shia run restaurants e.g. restaurants in the West or other non-shia dominated countries.

Bear also in mind that there are differences amongst the four sunni schools as to what is necessary for a valid sacrifice, such that strictly speaking, meat sacrifed on the shafi'i criteria may not be halal on the hanafi criteria - now who among you would investigate that? In fact the shia ithna asheri criteria for sacrificing meat is acceptable and closer to the hanafi criteria than the shafi'i criteria!

Abu Rayhaan