Glossary

What does zabiha (dhabiha) mean?

ذبيحة

In short

Zabiha is meat from an animal slaughtered the Islamic way: by a Muslim, with God's name, cutting the throat so the blood drains.

Zabiha (also written dhabiha or zabihah, ذبيحة) refers to an animal slaughtered according to Islamic law. The main conditions are that the slaughterer is Muslim (or, according to many scholars, from the People of the Book), that God's name is said, and that a sharp knife cuts the throat, windpipe and blood vessels so the blood drains out.

Scholars differ on stunning before slaughter and on machine slaughter of poultry. In the UK, HMC does not accept stunning, while HFA accepts some reversible stunning. See Is stunned meat halal?

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Written by the Halal Check Online editorial team. Last reviewed 2026-10-06. How we write these answers · Suggest a correction