Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr said, “There is no disagreement whatsoever over its prohibition,” whereas the commentator on Bulūgh al-Marām writes, “The prohibition of eating its meat is the position adopted by the overwhelming majority of scholars—Companions, Followers, and later authorities—save Ibn ʿAbbās, who held, ‘It is not unlawful.’ ” The consensus cited by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr therefore dates from a time after the view of Ibn ʿAbbās had lapsed.
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The prohibition of domesticated donkey meat is confirmed by many sound hadiths. One of them states by way of explanation, “It is najas (impure),” while another version reads, “It is rijs (filth).”
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Just as its flesh is forbidden, so is its milk; it too is impure and may not be drunk, even for medicinal purposes.
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By implication, the hadith permits the flesh of wild donkeys, which count as game. Whoever kills one within the Sacred Precinct or while in a state of ihram must pay a penalty. Sharḥ al-Iqnāʿ says: “For a wild donkey the compensation is a cow,” a ruling handed down by ʿUmar and upheld by ʿUrwah and Mujāhid. This animal is what is called ḥimār al-zard (the zebra), a species native to Africa.
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The hadith also indicates the permissibility of horse meat. That is the view of al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, the two companions of Abū Ḥanīfah, Isḥāq, and the vast majority of earlier and later scholars, based on this report and other authentic narrations of similar import.
Abū Ḥanīfah and Mālik, however, considered eating it disliked, citing the report of Khālid ibn al-Walīd: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade the meat of horses, mules, donkeys, and every beast of prey with fangs” (reported by Aḥmad, 6376). Yet this hadith was judged weak by Aḥmad himself, al-Dāraqutnī, al-Khaṭṭābī, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, and ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq. Al-Bayhaqī remarked: “Its chain is confused and contradicts the narrations of reliable transmitters.”
Those who deem horse meat disliked also cite the verse: “And (He created) horses, mules, and donkeys for you to ride and as adornment” (Q 16:8), observing that riding and adornment are mentioned whereas eating is not.
The scholars who allow it respond that the mention of riding and adornment does not restrict its benefits to those two. They were singled out only because they are the primary purposes for which horses are kept. Allah knows best.