In Islamic legal literature, several criteria are used to determine whether a food is ḥalāl or ḥarām (not permissible). These criteria include the origin of the food (e.g., whether it comes from an animal that was slaughtered in a specific way), the presence of prohibited ingredients (e.g., alcohol), and how the food was prepared. The terms "khabīth" and "ṭayyib" are used to define purity and impurity concerning food. "Khabīth" refers to dirt and ritual impurity, while "ṭayyib" refers to clean and desirable things. While the term khabīth serves as textual evidence for the substantial purity of food, the term ṭayyib seems never to be technically a decisive factor for prohibition or permission. However, these terms are not limited to material things and also implicate immaterial attributes such as morality, good and evil. For example, in the Qurʾān, the term "khabīth" describes immorality, hypocrisy, and unbelief and is often associated with the devil. In contrast, the term "ṭayyib" describes good human attributes, blessings from God, and desirable things. The early Muslim exegesis reveals that the term khabīth was understood as legal impurity of food. In legal discussion, however, the term khabīth develops into an indicator of substantively unpermissible food – animals evoking disgust. On the other side, the term ṭayyib describes things that humankind desires. But according to early tafsir literature, the term was never a condition or additional attribute of permissibility. Instead, it represented the status quo – the desirability of food – before prohibition. The use of these terms in the context of its Urgemeinde, that is, the question of how the first recipients of the Qurʾān understood and thus adopted or transformed these terms from the Qurʾān, requires a critical examination of Jewish, Christian, and Jewish-Christian sources. As a dynamic communication process, the Qurʾān adopts certain concepts, including ethical concepts, of its time of revelation and processes them. The question of the immediate canonical, but particularly non-canonical, i.e., apocryphal and pseudepigraphical Jewish or Christian sources, therefore, constitutes an essential point concerning the interpretation of the Qurʾān. The study may explore how these different dietary practices and food choices helped shape the region's social boundaries and identities. It may also consider how food was used to define and maintain group boundaries and how it contributed to the creation of social, cultural, and religious distinctions between different communities.