Once the quarry has been struck and taken, it falls under two possible situations:

First situation: You reach it while it is still alive with a stable, viable life. In that case it must undergo the prescribed ritual slaughter (dhakāh) already explained; mere hunting does not render it lawful.

Second situation: You reach it already dead because of the hunt, or alive but in its death throes. Here the animal is lawful to eat provided the following conditions are met.

Condition One – The hunter’s eligibility: The person must be someone whose slaughtered animal is lawful to eat, for the hunter stands in the place of the slaughterer. He therefore has to be rational and either a Muslim or a member of the People of the Book. Whatever is taken by an insane person or an intoxicated person is unlawful because sound reason is lacking, and whatever is taken by a Magian, an idol-worshipper, or any other kind of unbeliever is likewise unlawful, just as their slaughtered animals are unlawful.

Condition Two – The instrument used, which is of two kinds:

1. A sharp object. It must satisfy the same requirements as the tool of slaughter: it must cause the blood to flow, it may not be a tooth or a claw, and it must wound the animal with its edge, not with its weight. If the object that kills the game is not sharp—such as a stone, a club, a snare, a net, or a piece of metal—the game killed with it is not lawful, with one exception: bullets fired from today’s rifles. Game killed by them is lawful because the propulsive force pierces the body and makes the blood flow like, or even more than, a sharp blade.

2. A trained predator, whether dog or bird of prey. What such an animal kills is permissible if it has been trained, whether it hunts with its fangs, like a dog, or with its talons, like a bird. Allah says, “and of the hunting animals you have trained—teaching them from what Allah has taught you” (Q 5:4), meaning that you discipline them with the etiquette of taking game, proceeding from the knowledge that