The first view is that it is unlawful, because it has fed on impurity, which has affected its flesh.

The second is that it is lawful. This is based on the view that an impure substance becomes pure through transformation. They say: the impurity it consumed has been transformed into blood, flesh, and other substances through which the body grows, and thus it becomes pure. Accordingly, animals that eat carrion are lawful.

Somewhat analogous to this is a tree fertilized with human excrement—that is, with impurity. Is its fruit prohibited or not?

The majority of scholars hold that its fruit is not prohibited, because the impurity has undergone transformation—unless the smell or taste of the impurity becomes evident in the fruit, in which case it is prohibited. This view is undoubtedly correct: that which has been fertilized with impurity is not prohibited so long as it has not changed.

People used to fertilize with donkey droppings, since donkeys were used to draw water from wells. Yet if you were to tell them, “Fertilize with human excrement,” they would say, “We seek Allah’s refuge! That is not permissible!” Even though they fertilized with donkey droppings, there is no difference between the two, for both are impure. But customs influence beliefs: because they were not accustomed to fertilizing with human excrement, they said, “This is unlawful”; whereas, because they were accustomed to fertilizing with donkey droppings, they said, “There is nothing wrong with this.”

But the correct view is that there is nothing wrong with either practice, and that the fruit of date palms or other trees fertilized with such impurities is lawful and pure, provided that no trace of the impurity appears in their fruit.

That which is deemed repulsive, such as the hedgehog, porcupine, mouse, snake, all insects, the bat, and whatever is produced from a lawful animal and another animal, such as the mule.

The fifth category is his statement: “That which is deemed repulsive,” meaning, everything that