Ruling on praying in the freezer area in a meat factory

30-3-2023 | IslamWeb

Question:

I work at a meat factory where they slaughter cows and process their meat, the department I work in is the freezer area, the place where they actually slaughter the cow is in another building my question is would it be acceptable to pray in the freezer of this place?

---

Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu`alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

If the place is pure as the dear questioner mentioned, then there is no legal impediment to pray in it. The Messenger of Allah, salllallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam, said: “The earth has been made for me a place of prostration and a means of purification, so wherever a man of my Ummah is when the time for prayer comes, let him pray.”

The freezer area where frozen meat is kept is unlike the slaughterhouse and the garbage dumps, where it is forbidden to pray because of impurities of blood and dung in such places. Al-Kasani said in Badaa’i Al-Sana’i: “As for the meaning of the prohibition of praying in the garbage dumps and the slaughterhouse, it is because they are places of impurity.”

Accordingly, there is nothing wrong with praying in the freezer area or in other places if it is free of traces of impurity.

Allah knows best.