Surah Al Maidah

Taken from :

Note:End of this post has the link to the video I was Talking about in class about the epidemic.  Also, check out the article about slaghtering animals the islamic way after Ayat 3 of this post.

Al Maidah means : The Food. The essence of the Surah is of course, Food. What is allowed, what is not? And how one partakes of it. It comprises of 120 verses/ ayats.
Ayat 1 -O you who have believed, fulfill [all] contracts. Lawful for you are the animals of grazing livestock except for that which is recited to you [in this Qur'an] – hunting not being permitted while you are in the state of ihram. Indeed, Allah ordains what He intends.
The verse begins with the command to fulfill all contracts and promises made. Then goes on to explain that only animals which graze on grass or plants are lawful for a Muslim and that hunting is not allowed during Ihraam. Ihraam is the state you’re in while on pilgrimage (after donning the white cloth called ‘ihraam’, see pic)
Here it is clear that acts of garlanding animals while sacrificing them is not permissible.
Prohibited food as explained above:
Meat of dead animals, Blood, Swine (pigs), animals killed by strangling of a violent blow, or which dies of injury due to horns, what is killed by wild animals, those sacrificed on stone altars, or killed by arrows. But animals hunted by your trained hunting animals, which you eventually sacrifice in the prescribed way (halaal) is acceptable. But again, if one is compelled to eat something out of sheer hunger (in a survival situation), something not prescribed for a believer, then there is no sin on him as Allah knows whats in our hearts.
Many of non-Muslims must have heard the word Halaal in context to food. ‘Halaal’ simply means – ‘lawful’ (permissible), while ‘Haraam’ means ‘unlawful’. Halaal food means food which is not prohibited as per Quran. There is prescribed way to slaughter an animal in Islam and this method has also been proven to be the best method scientifically also. It causes least pain to animal and almost entire blood is oozed out from animal, which is good for human intake also. To read in detail about the Islamic way of slaughtering animals (and its scientific authentication), you may check this link :
Link of the tapeworm infestation video – Clickbelow: