Severance of a part from a living body (ibana)

For the jurists, ibana is separation or cutting off. It covers the severance of a part from a living creature. The Kuwaiti encyclopedia states the general rule: what is severed from a living creature, other than the wool and hair of an edible animal, is like its carrion, on the basis of a report transmitted in several forms. The encyclopedia notes that the critics judged its chain weak, and that the report's grading is contested. ^{1 2}

The word means to show, to separate or to cut off. The jurists mostly use it in the sense of separation and cutting. One use is a wife's divorce by a final divorce or by khul': she then has her own freedom, and the husband may take her back only by a new contract. ¹

The jurists agree in general that what is severed from a living creature, other than the wool and hair of an edible animal, is like its carrion, on the report "what is severed from a living creature is dead." ¹

The encyclopedia's footnote reports that the report has several versions, including one from Abu Sa'id in al-Hakim with the wording "what is cut from a living creature is dead." It records that al-Dhahabi corrected al-Hakim's authentication, that the chain of Abu Dawud's version is weak, that al-Tirmidhi called one version hasan gharib, and that al-Daraqutni named its defect. The grading is presented here as the encyclopedia gives it. ^{1 2}

A part cut after slaughter and before death may be eaten, though it is generally disliked. ²

The discussion appears in several chapters: impurity, nakedness (touching and looking at a severed organ), burial, divorce and khul', li'an, slaughter (how to slaughter), hunting, and injury to limbs. ²