6 Creatures that the Lawgiver has commanded us to kill or has prohibited us from killing, such as the five noxious pests and the hoopoe and the shrike.

Apart from the animals and birds just mentioned, every other species is lawful by default: horses, the livestock beasts, chickens, wild asses, gazelles, ostriches, rabbits, and the rest of wild game. All of these are considered wholesome and therefore fall under the divine statement, “and He makes lawful for them the good and pure things” (Q 7:157).

Excluded from this are the jallalah—cattle or camels whose principal feed is filth. Their meat is forbidden, for Aḥmad, Abū Dāwūd and others have transmitted from Ibn ʿUmar that “the Messenger forbade eating the jallalah and drinking its milk,” and from ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb that he “forbade the flesh of domesticated donkeys, and the riding of the jallalah and eating its meat.” The same ruling applies to livestock, chickens and the like, and its droppings and eggs are impure until the animal is confined for three days and fed only wholesome fodder.

Ibn al-Qayyim said, “The Muslims are unanimously agreed that if an animal has been fattened on filth and is then confined and given wholesome feed, its milk and meat become lawful. The same principle applies to crops and fruits: if they are irrigated with impure water and are later irrigated with pure water, they become permissible, for the offensive quality has disappeared…”