Slaughtering a Pregnant Ewe for Sale and the Ruling on Its Young

Question

A ewe is pregnant and is slaughtered; the lamb sometimes dies and sometimes stays alive. Will the slaughter of such a ewe be permissible or not? Moreover, this is the daily practice of the shop trade: they slaughter on the reckoning that one or two days remain before the ewe lambs. Is it permissible in the Shari‘a to do so or not?

Answer

Slaughtering such an animal is makruh, although the slaughtered animal will be halal. The young that comes out dead may not be eaten; the young that comes out alive should be slaughtered, and it will be halal.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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