Halal & Haram

What does Islam say about buying halal meat from a non-Muslim?

What is the verdict of the Islamic scholars on the following issue; one Muslim ordered chicken meat for a girl’s wedding from a non-Muslim who has a meat store nearby. He used all his plates, knives and crockery for the meat. He placed a Muslim man for slaughtering the chicken. What is the Islamic verdict on this meat consumed by the Muslims?
 
Questioner: Shahab al-Din, India in Kashipur.
 
Answer:
The judgement in the proposed query is that the moment that the meat may be obtained from a non-Muslim’s store is when the slaughterer is a Muslim and that a trustworthy Muslim man oversees from time of slaughter up the time of delivery of the meat into the hands of the Muslim butcher. Otherwise, it will all be haram to buy, butcher, consume and feed such meat, and repentance [tawba] is incumbent upon the consumer and the feeder.
 
Huzur Ala Hazrat (Allah have mercy upon him) says in a reply to a similar question in al-Fatawa al-Ridawiyyah,
Yes, if the meat continues to be overseen by the Muslim from the moment of slaughtering until the sale, whilst in the meantime, it has not disappeared from the Muslim sight, and peace has been obtained such that it is slaughtered by a Muslim, it is then allowed to buy, and consuming it will be halal.”
[al-Fatawa al-Ridawiyyah: vol. 20, p. 282]
 
In another section he says,
If it was given to him [to the kafir] after slaughter, and no Muslim oversaw whether he butchered the meat and gave it to the Muslims, then it was never halal to consume it.”
 
فان الکافرلایقبل قولہ فی الدیانات
In Islamic matters, the word of an unbeliever is not trustworthy.”
[al-Fatawa al-Ridawiyyah: vol. 20, p. 309]
 
And Allah knows best.
 
Mufti Muhammad Zulfaqar Khan Naimi Kakralwi
12-Shawwal-1432 || ≈ 10-Sep-2011
 al-Fuyudat al-Nabawiyyah fi’l-Fatawa al-Hanafiyya (Fatawa Uttarakhand): vol. 1, p. 318
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