But if the first hunter had already incapacitated the game and the second then shot and killed it, the meat may not be eaten, and the second hunter must reimburse the first for the full market value of the animal, less the depreciation caused by the first hunter’s wounds.
It is permissible to hunt any animal, whether its flesh is normally eaten or not.
The animal slaughtered by a Muslim or by a scripturalist (Jew or Christian) is lawful to eat, whereas the slaughter of a Magian, an apostate, an idolater, or a pilgrim in ihram is not. If the slaughterer intentionally omits the invocation of Allah’s name, the animal is deemed carrion and must not be eaten; if he forgets, it remains lawful.
Proper slaughter (dhabh) is carried out at the throat and the upper chest. The four vessels to be severed are the ḥulqūm (trachea), the marīʾ (esophagus), and the two wadajayn (jugular veins). When all four are cut, the meat is lawful; according to Abū Ḥanīfah, severing the majority of them suffices, while Abū Yūsuf and Muḥammad require the trachea, the esophagus, and at least one jugular to be cut.
Slaughter is valid with a reed blade (līṭah), a flint stone (marwah), or any instrument that lets the blood flow, except a tooth still fixed in the mouth or a claw still attached to the body.
It is recommended that the slaughterer sharpen his blade. Reaching the spinal cord with the knife or severing the head outright is reprehensible, though the meat remains lawful.
If a sheep is cut from the back of the neck and remains alive until the vessels are severed, the slaughter is permissible but disliked; if it dies before the vessels are cut, the meat is unlawful.
A wild animal that has been tamed is slaughtered by cutting the throat, whereas livestock that has run feral is dispatched by stabbing or wounding (ʿaqr).
For camels, the preferred method is naḥr (piercing the depression at the base of the neck); slaughtering them by throat-cutting is permissible but disliked. For cattle and sheep the preferred method is throat-cutting; if they are dispatched by naḥr it is likewise permissible but disliked.
If someone pierces a she-camel or slaughters a cow or a sheep and finds a dead fetus in its womb, the fetus may not be eaten, whether it has grown hair or not.
It is unlawful to eat any carnivorous beast with fangs or any bird with talons. Eating the grain-feeding crow is unobjectionable, but the pied crow that feeds on carrion is not eaten.
It is disliked to eat the hyena, the spiny-tailed lizard, and all insects.
It is unlawful to eat the meat of domestic donkeys and of mules, and according to Abū Ḥanīfah horse meat is disliked—although there is no objection to it according to others.