محمد بن يحيى

النخاع (al-nukhāʿ) is translated archaically as "spinal marrow" in Lane's Lexicon and Hans Wehr; the previous translator of al-Khiṣāl also erroneously translated it as marrow. In Wasāʾil al-Shīʿah vol. 1 pg. 257 b. 30 ḥ. 1, Imam al-Ṣādiq (ʿas) tells us that bones are the food of Jinn, and in Mustadrak al-Wasāʾil vol. 16 pg. 455 b. 112 ḥ. 30, the Messenger of God (s) tells us that the wretched of his nation eat bone marrow (شرار أمتي الذين يأكلون مخاخ العظام); hence we understand that bone marrow ought to be avoided. Lisān al-ʿArab, however, defines النخاع as "a white cord in the neck, running down the vertebrae until the coccyx. It waters the bones." (عِرْقٌ أَبيض فِي دَاخِلِ الْعُنُقِ يَنْقَادُ فِي فَقارِ الصُّلْبِ حَتَّى يَبْلُغَ عَجْبَ الذَّنَبِ، وَهُوَ يَسْقِي العِظامَ); hence the spinal cord. We find that spinal marrow is the more archaic anatomical term translating the Latin anatomical term "medulla spinalis" found in older literature. We must understand this as the spinal cord, which we are not to eat, and must only sever after the animal has died from blood loss (al-Kāfī vol. 6 pg. 229). الفرث (farth, undigested food in the viscera and excrement still within the entrails) is variously glossed and translated as "entrails" or "excrement," but neither is fully correct. It is the excrement and partially digested food still to be found in the entrails of the animal (vid. Lane's Lexicon). This word is found in the Qurʾān 16:66, where God discusses the remarkable nature of milk, pure for our drinking, produced from the bellies of animals among their blood and "farth". This is also cognate with the Hebrew word פֶּרֶשׁ (pereš<*pirš), attested in the Bible in Exodus 29:14, Leviticus 8:17, and Malachi 2:3. In Hebrew, it carries the same meaning of "contents of the stomach" or "dung" as well (vid. Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament). In modern Arabic غدة means a gland as in the modern medical sense in endocrinology, but in Classical Arabic, it meant a hard lump in the tendinous parts or a lump of flesh arising from disease; these pestilences would also be found in livestock like camels (vid. Lane's). Additionally, refer to Wasāʾil al-Shīʿah vol. 24 pg. 171 Chapter 31 (باب ما يحرم من الذبيحة ، وما يكره منها - Chapter on what is prohibited from slaughtered animals and what is disliked).