and the vicious dog.” (1) This includes the snake, the wolf, the lion, and the like, because the Prophet’s explicit mention of these five encompasses whatever is similar to them or more harmful than them.

The second category is that which one is forbidden to kill, such as the ant, the bee, the hoopoe, and the shrike. They are not to be killed, whether outside the Sacred Precinct or within it.

The ant is well known, including both its small and large varieties. What is well known needs no definition, for when you define what is already known, you render it indefinite.

The bee is well known; it is the creature from whose bellies honey emerges. It has been said:

“You call this the bee’s saliva, in praise of it;
But if you wish, you may call it the vomit of wasps.”

The hoopoe is well known.

The shrike is a small bird, larger than a sparrow, with a red beak; those familiar with birds recognize it.

The third category is that concerning which the Lawgiver has remained silent: neither commanding that it be killed nor forbidding it. If it causes harm, it is included among those creatures which one is commanded to kill, because a harmful creature is killed in order to ward off its harm. But if it causes no harm, then the matter calls for withholding judgment.

Some have permitted killing it, because whatever the Lawgiver has remained silent about is among that which He has pardoned.

Others have deemed it disliked, because Allah created it for a wisdom, and so one should not kill it. This is the preferable view.