3. Muhammadan rite of zibah or halāl.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Russell, R. V. (Robert Vane)
When killing an animal the butcher lays it on the ground with its feet to the west and head stretched towards the north and then cuts its throat saying:
In the name of God;
God is great.
This method of killing an animal is known as zibah. The Muhammadan belief that an animal is not fit for food unless its throat has been cut so that the blood flows on to the ground is thus explained in Professor Robertson Smith’s Religion of the Semites1: “In heathen Canaan all the animals belonged to the god of the country; but it was lawful to kill them if payment was made to the god by pouring out their life or blood on the ground.” The Arabs are of the same Semitic stock, and this may be partly the underlying idea of their rite of zibah. It seems doubtful, however, whether the explanation suffices to explain its continuance for so long a period among the Muhammadans who have long ceased to reverence any earth-deity, and in a foreign country where the soil cannot be sacred to them; and a short summary of Dr. Robertson Smith’s luminous explanation of the underlying principle of animal sacrifice in early times seems requisite to its full understanding.