2. The reason is that the practice is pure harm with no benefit whatsoever: it breaks teeth, blinds eyes, and wounds faces, yet produces no gain. Should it happen to kill, the animal thus slain is not lawful to eat, for it dies from the sheer weight of the blow, not from a sharp edge or proper penetration. The majority of scholars hold that game killed by blunt force is unlawful, classifying it as al-mawqūdhah (animals beaten to death) mentioned by the Exalted in His words: “and those animals beaten to death” (Qur’an 5:3). Killing an animal without right, and deriving no lawful benefit from it, is therefore forbidden. In the Musnad of Imam Ahmad (6515) and the Sunan of al-Nasāʾī (4445) it is related from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever kills a sparrow without due right, Allah will question him about it on the Day of Resurrection.” It was asked, “O Messenger of Allah, what is its right?” He replied, “That you slaughter it properly and do not merely twist its neck and cast it aside.”

3. Analogous to this is the nabeelāʾ, a slingshot with which children shoot small birds such as sparrows. How much harm it has caused to people in their homes when children aim at birds perched on garden walls, resulting in falling stones and frightening younger children.

If a small bird is killed in this manner, its meat is unlawful, because it dies from the weight of the stone rather than from a cutting edge.

Therefore, those in authority must restrain such behavior, and law-enforcement officers should discipline offenders, for it is prohibited by analogy with what the Prophet ﷺ forbade in this ḥadith.