﴿ حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلْمَيْتَةُ وَٱلدَّمُ وَلَحْمُ ٱلْخِنزِيرِ وَمَآ أُهِلَّ لِغَيْرِ ٱللَّهِ بِهِۦ وَٱلْمُنْخَنِقَةُ وَٱلْمَوْقُوذَةُ وَٱلْمُتَرَدِّيَةُ وَٱلنَّطِيحَةُ وَمَآ أَكَلَ ٱلسَّبُعُ إِلَّا مَا ذَكَّيْتُمْ وَمَا ذُبِحَ عَلَى ٱلنُّصُبِ وَأَن تَسْتَقْسِمُوا۟ بِٱلْأَزْلَٰمِ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ فِسْقٌ ۗ ٱلْيَوْمَ يَئِسَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِن دِينِكُمْ فَلَا تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَٱخْشَوْنِ ۚ ٱلْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِى وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ ٱلْإِسْلَٰمَ دِينًۭا ۚ فَمَنِ ٱضْطُرَّ فِى مَخْمَصَةٍ غَيْرَ مُتَجَانِفٍۢ لِّإِثْمٍۢ ۙ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ ﴾

“FORBIDDEN to you is carrion, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and that over which any name other than God's has been invoked, and the animal that has been strangled, or beaten to death, or killed by a fall, or gored to death, or savaged by a beast of prey, save that which you [yourselves] may have slaughtered while it was still alive; and [forbidden to you is] all that has been slaughtered on idolatrous altars. And [you are forbidden] to seek to learn through divination what the future may hold in store for you: this is sinful conduct. Today, those who are bent on denying the truth have lost all hope of [your ever forsaking] your religion: do not, then, hold them in awe, but stand in awe of Me! Today have I perfected your religious law for you, and have bestowed upon you the full measure of My blessings, and willed that self-surrender unto Me shall be your religion. As for him, however, who is driven [to what is forbidden] by dire necessity and not by an inclination to sinning -behold, God is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.”

Some animals, due to their being harmful from the point of view of health and morality, are not fit to be consumed by human beings as food. That is the sole reason for Almighty God having forbidden pork. Similarly, there are many things in the body of an animal besides its flesh that are not fit to be eaten. Blood is one of these. Accordingly, in Islam a certain method of slaughtering an animal (dhabh) is prescribed in order to ensure that after slaughtering all of the animal’s blood oozes out. In other methods of killing an animal, except dhabh, the blood of the animal remains absorbed in its flesh and does not get fully separated. For the same reason, in the Islamic law, the consumption of all types of dead animals is also forbidden, because the blood of a dead animal immediately gets absorbed in its flesh. Similarly, meat that is somehow polluted by polytheistic belief is forbidden; for example, the meat of an animal slaughtered by invoking any name other than that of God or the meat of animals in order to attain nearness to (or to appease) anybody other than God. However, God by His special grace has made the allowance that any starving person who has to choose between death and taking forbidden food may opt for the latter. ‘Today I have perfected your religion for you’ i.e. the commandments that were to be given to you have all been given. Whatever was destined to be sent to you has all been sent. Here there is no mention about the perfection of religion in the absolute sense; it is only a declaration of the completion of the process of revelation of the Quran which was started earlier. This mentions the completion of revelation and not that of the religion. Therefore, the wording is not ‘Today I have perfected the religion,’ but rather ‘Today I have completed your religion for you.’ The fact is that the religion of God was given to man in every period in perfect form. God has never sent imperfect religion to man. God has put the people following the Quran on such a firm footing that by virtue of their latent potential they have gone beyond the reach of any external danger. Now if that community comes to any harm, it will be due to its internal weaknesses and not due to any external attacks. And the greatest guarantee of being free from internal weaknesses is that its members should have fear of God at heart.