that any creature without blood is not deemed carrion.
The Qāḍī said: We have already discussed this question in the Book of Purification. In this connection the jurists cite a ḥadīth that qualifies the general ruling on blood, the Prophet ﷺ having said, “Two kinds of carrion and two kinds of blood have been made lawful for us.” To the best of my knowledge, this ḥadīth is not found in the well-known ḥadīth compilations.
As for the disputed items that are intrinsically forbidden, they are four:
- The flesh of predatory animals, whether birds or quadrupeds;
- Domesticated animals with a solid hoof;
- The meat of any animal whose killing in the Sacred Precinct is required;
- The meat of creatures that people naturally find repulsive and foul.
Abū Ḥāmid likewise transmitted from al-Shāfiʿī that he forbids the meat of any animal whose killing is prohibited—such as swallows and bees—thus creating a fifth contentious category.
Regarding the first issue—quadruped predators—Ibn al-Qāsim related from Mālik that their flesh is merely disliked (makrūh), and the majority of his followers rely on this view, championing it. Yet in the Muwaṭṭaʾ Mālik adduced evidence that, in his own estimation, the meat is in fact forbidden, for after citing the report of Abū Hurayrah that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Eating any beast of prey that possesses fangs is forbidden,” he added, “and that is our ruling.”
Al-Shāfiʿī, Ashhab, other Mālikīs, and Abū Ḥanīfah likewise held it to be prohibited, though they differed over what exactly counts as a “beast of prey.” Abū Ḥanīfah maintained that every meat-eating creature is a predator, so even the elephant, hyena, jerboa, and the domestic cat fall under the ban. Al-Shāfiʿī, by contrast, allowed the hyena and the fox, restricting the prohibition to animals that attack people, such as the lion, tiger, and wolf. Both views are reported within his school. The majority further agree that the monkey may neither be eaten nor used, and al-Shāfiʿī also rules that the dog is unlawful and of no permissible benefit, understanding from the command to wash its leftover water that the animal itself is impure.
Their divergence over the flesh of quadruped predators stems from an apparent conflict between Qurʾān and ḥadīth. The outward sense of the verse, “Say: I do not find within what has been revealed to me anything forbidden to one who wishes to eat it…” (6:145), is that whatever is not mentioned therein is lawful. Yet the explicit wording of the ḥadīth of Abū Thaʿlaba al-Khashanī—“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade eating every predator that has fangs”—indicates that such animals are prohibited. This report is narrated by both al-Bukhārī and Muslim.