• All of these creatures just mentioned, if proper slaughter (1) cannot be performed on them, remain forbidden. Yet should one reach any of them while it is still alive and carry out the prescribed slaughter, it becomes lawful, for He says, “except what you are able to slaughter” (5:3). It makes no difference whether, had it not been slaughtered, it was more likely to live or to die.

• Also among the prohibited things are insects and the ground-dwelling vermin—mice, snakes, geckos, and similar creatures that are deemed repulsive both by the Law and by sound medicine.

• Likewise forbidden is any animal slaughtered in a manner contrary to the Law:
– when the slaughterer is neither a Muslim nor a person of the Book;
– or when he slaughters it somewhere other than the prescribed place while it is within his control;
– or when he fails to sever its windpipe and gullet;
– or when he uses an instrument that does not cause the blood to flow, or a bone, or a claw.

• Whatever the Lawgiver has commanded to kill, or has forbidden killing, is thereby shown to be unlawful to eat and inherently foul.

• All of these things are prohibited only in times of ease. If, however, a person is driven by necessity—without having sought them out beforehand, and without transgressing into the unlawful while the lawful is available—then, when compelled, “without willful desire or transgression, Allah is All-Forgiving, All-Merciful” (16:115). Out of His mercy, He has permitted such prohibited things in cases of dire need.

• And out of His mercy He has broadened the avenues of the lawful for His servants:
– He has allowed game that is wounded on any part of its body;
– and He has allowed hunting with arrows, provided the archer pronounces the name of Allah when releasing the shot.