like a ball, and in so doing it protects itself from any attack. Its plural is qunafidh, and it is also known as al-ʿasʿās because of its frequent nocturnal wanderings. The hedgehog is especially fond of eating snakes.

Lessons derived from the ḥadith

1. The report points to the prohibition of eating the hedgehog and classifies it among the vile creatures. Apparently Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) had not heard the ḥadith and therefore issued his ruling according to his own ijtihād, basing himself on the general wording of the noble verse that permits consumption. Once the explicit text reached him, he gave it precedence over personal reasoning.

2. The jurists differed over whether the hedgehog is unlawful. Abū Ḥanīfah and Aḥmad held it to be prohibited, relying on this ḥadith and on the principle that what is filthy is forbidden, and Allah has declared the filth impure. Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī, however, deemed it permissible, consistent with the view that the default ruling for animals is permissibility—a foundational dispute—and because, in their judgment, the ḥadith is not authentic.