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Is it permissible to eat cheeses made with enzymes extracted from unlawfully slaughtered, prohibited meat?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Rennet is a substance extracted from the stomach of a suckling kid or lamb, used to curdle milk. If taken from an animal slaughtered according to Islamic law, it is pure and permissible to eat, by consensus of the four madhhabs. However, if taken from a dead animal (carrion) or an animal not slaughtered according to Islamic law, the majority of the Malikis, Shafi'is, and Hanbalis have ruled it to be impure and impermissible to eat, based on the Almighty's saying: ﴿Forbidden to you are carrion﴾. Conversely, Abu Hanifa and one of the two narrations from Ahmad held it to be pure and permissible to eat, a view preferred by Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, because rennet does not die with the death of the animal.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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