The Chapter on Hunting

The term “hunting” may denote the act itself, and it may also denote the object hunted. It denotes the act, for example, when someone says, “I shall hunt some game,” just as one says, “I shall devise a scheme”—that is, as an action. It may denote the object, as in the verse in which Allah says:

“Lawful to you is the game of the sea.” [Quran 5:96]

That is, what is caught from it.

In the first sense, hunting is defined as capturing an edible, wild animal.

By “capturing,” slaughtering is excluded, for it is not a form of capture: a person slaughters an animal while it is calm and with ease.

By “an edible animal,” animals that are not edible are excluded. Even if a person catches one with a weapon, it is not considered hunting in the religious sense.

By “wild,” non-wild animals are excluded. However, we have previously mentioned that a domesticated animal which runs away has the same ruling as game—that is, as a wild animal.

Is hunting lawful or unlawful?

We say: hunting falls into three categories:

The first is to hunt out of need, for food. There is no doubt that this is permissible. It is among that which Allah has made lawful in His Book; it is established by the sunnah of the Prophet, and the Muslims are unanimous upon it.