1167 – Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Do not turn any creature that possesses life into a target.” Recorded by Muslim (1).
Vocabulary of the ḥadith
• gharadan (غَرَضًا): with two short vowels and a dotted ghayn, meaning “a target.” The intent is: do not make a living animal a mark at which to shoot. The prohibition indicates that the act is unlawful, for it constitutes tormenting the animal.
Points derived from the ḥadith
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The text forbids using any living being as a target; a clear prohibition denotes impermissibility, and doing so is indeed cruelty to the animal. Al-Bukhārī 5513 and Muslim 1956 narrate from Anas: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade al-muṣbarah of animals,” and al-ṣabr is to kill an animal while it is tied up and overpowered.
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In some narrations the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah curses the one who does this,” i.e., who makes an animal a target for shooting. It amounts to torturing the animal, destroying its life, squandering its monetary value, and depriving it of lawful slaughter. The Prophet ﷺ also said, “When you kill, kill well; and when you slaughter, slaughter well” (Muslim 1955), whereas this person has wronged it in several respects.
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Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl al-Shaykh, discussing the killing of domesticated donkeys, stated that killing these free-roaming animals is not permissible under the Sharīʿah, as the jurists have made explicit. In al-Iqnāʿ and its commentary it is written: “It is not permissible to kill a beast or slaughter it merely to relieve it, just as it is not permissible to kill a human being who is suffering from severe illness.”