Back to search

What is the ruling on not eating the food of Christians and not accepting it at all, even if that leads to death by starvation?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is permissible to eat the food of Christians if it does not contain anything forbidden, such as intoxicants, pork, or carrion, because Allah says: "The food of those who were given the Scripture is lawful for you." This is also indicated by the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) eating from a poisoned Jewish sheep, and his acceptance of a Jewish man's invitation to barley bread and rancid fat. As for abandoning food until its owner perishes, there are other fatwas concerning that.

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

Read the full answer on Ftawy