Abd al-Wahid al-Mulayhi informed us; Ahmad ibn Abd Allah al-Numaymi informed us; Muhammad ibn Yusuf informed us; Muhammad ibn Ismail informed us; Musaddad informed us; Yahya informed us, from Ibn Jurayj, who said: Umar informed me that he heard Jabir—may Allah be pleased with him—say:
“I took part in the expedition of the Army of al-Khabat, with Abu Ubaydah appointed as our commander. We suffered severe hunger, until the sea cast up for us a dead whale unlike any we had ever seen, called al-Anbar. We ate from it for half a month. Abu Ubaydah took one of its bones, and a rider was able to pass beneath it.”
Abu al-Zubayr informed me that he heard Jabir say: Abu Ubaydah said, “Eat.” When we arrived in Madinah, we mentioned this to the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—and he said, “Eat: it was provision that Allah brought forth for you. Feed us some of it, if you have any with you.” So some of them brought him a portion of it, and they ate it. (1)
Allah the Exalted says: “And forbidden to you is game from the land for as long as you are in the state of ihram. And fear Allah, to whom you will be gathered.” 112/b
Sea game is lawful for one in the state of ihram, just as it is lawful for one who is not in ihram. As for land game, it is forbidden to one in ihram and within the Sacred Precinct. Game refers to a wild animal whose meat is lawful to eat. Whatever is not lawful to eat is not rendered forbidden merely by reason of ihram; a person in ihram may capture and kill it, and no compensation is due for killing it—except in the case of an animal born from a cross between one whose meat may not be eaten and one whose meat may be eaten. Thus, an animal born from a wolf and a gazelle may not be eaten, yet compensation is due from the person in ihram who kills it, because it includes game for which compensation is payable.
Abu al-Hasan al-Sarakhsi informed us; Zahir ibn Ahmad informed us; Abu Ishaq al-Hashimi informed us; Abu Musab related from Malik
(1) Narrated by al-Bukhari in al-Maghazi (Military Expeditions), chapter on the Expedition of Sayf al-Bahr: 8/78, with his wording; by Muslim in al-Sayd wa-al-Dhaba'ih (Hunting and Slaughtered Animals), chapter on the permissibility of the carcasses of sea animals, no. 1935: 3/1535; and by the compiler of Sharh al-Sunnah: 11/246. Some people may be astonished at the enormous size of this creature, and some may suppose that the report contains exaggeration, which may lead them to reject it as false. Yet we are dealing here with an authentic text and a truthful record: the hadith is sound in its chain of transmission, since both al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated it, and their collections rank at the highest level of authenticity; and it is also sound in its wording. A comparable example of the wonders of Allah's creation, demonstrating this point, was cited by the late Muhammad Fuad Abd al-Baqi in Sahih Muslim, in the volume he devoted to indexes: 5/586:
(1) Cairo's al-Ahram newspaper published, in issue no. 24419, dated 27/9/1953, p. 2, col. 7, under the title, “Jonah's Whale”: “Yesterday, a 30-metre transport vehicle, said to be the longest in the world, passed through the streets of Paris. It was carrying ‘Jonah,’ a huge whale, eighteen months old, twenty metres long, and weighing 8,000 kilograms. Its owners had preserved it and displayed it to spectators in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, and Germany. It will be exhibited in Paris this week for an admission fee. Its interior has been illuminated with electric lamps so that spectators may see inside it.”
(2) The newspaper al-Akhbar al-Jadidah (The New News), in issue no. 396, dated 27/9/1953, p. 2, cols. 1-2, published under the title, “A Whale Twenty Metres Long and Weighing Eight Tons: People Enter Its Belly, Ten at a Time”: “Paris: This morning, ‘Una’ entered Paris like a conqueror, guarded by dozens of mounted and foot police officers. This ‘Una’ is a huge Norwegian whale...” It then continued its description of the whale, stating: “People are permitted to enter its electrically illuminated stomach. Ten people can enter its belly at one time...”