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the theory of limits 193from a height, and that which has been killed by (the goring of ) horns,and the devoured of wild beasts, saving that which you make lawful(by the death-stroke), and that which has been immolated unto idols.And (forbidden is it) that you swear by the divining arrows. This is anabomination. This day are those who disbelieve in despair of (everharming) your religion. So fear them not, fear Me! This day haveI perfected your religion for you and completed My favour unto you,and have chosen for you as religion al-Islam. Whoso is forced by hunger,not by will, to sin: (for him) lo! Allah is forgiving, merciful.( Al-M§"ida 5:3)Verse 3 of Sårat al-M§"ida lists ‘carrion and blood and swineflesh’as prohibited food as well as food that has been ‘dedicated unto anyother than Allah’. This constitutes the lower limit for those who wantto legislate what is illegal to eat. A different category is meat of ‘thestrangled, and the dead through beating, and the dead through fallingfrom a height, and that which has been killed by (the goring of )horns, and the devoured of wild beasts’. Food from this kind of meatcannot be regarded as an absolute taboo, because, if one managesto slaughter it correctly by an ‘invocation of God’s name’, it becomesÈal§l food and, hence, edible: 14Say: “I find not in the message received by me by inspiration any(meat) forbidden to be eaten by one who wishes to eat it, unless it bedead meat, or blood poured forth, or the flesh of swine, for it is anabomination, or what is impious (meat), on which a name has beeninvoked, other than God’s”. But (even so), if a person is forced bynecessity, without wilful disobedience, nor transgressing due limits,your Lord is oft-forgiving, most merciful. ( Al-An#§m 6:145)Why should you not eat of (meats) on which God’s name has beenpronounced, when He has explained to you in detail what is forbiddento you, except under compulsion of necessity? But many do mislead14\anafÊ law provides a very similar ruling but supplies a much more complexlists of lawful and unlawful food that MS wants to avoid by referring to an exhaustivelyclear lower limit of food taboos. \anafÊ jurists distinguish between meat fromanimals that live in the sea and those that live on land, and then between a) bloodlessanimals, b) animals that bleed if slaughtered, and c) animals that do not bleed; andfinally with regards to category b) between domestic and wild animals. Everythingfrom the sea except fish is unlawful, so are bloodless, blood-static (except locusts),and wild animals. Consumption of animals that live from impure substances are alsounlawful unless they were fed with lawful substances before they were slaughtered.These categories and distinctions are not all qur"anic and hence have for MS nolegal significance (see #Al§" al-DÊn al-K§s§nÊ, al-Bad§"i# al-ßan§"i# fi’l-tartÊb al-shar§"i#,vol. 5, 35–62).