in mid-air and it then falls to the ground, then—if the missile has already struck the animal’s vital points and pierced them before it reaches the ground, tumbles from the height, or drops into the water—its ritual slaughter is considered complete; once the weapon has done the work of lawful slaughter, nothing that befalls the animal afterwards can render it unlawful. If the missile has not penetrated the vital organs, the game may not be eaten unless one reaches it while it is still alive and performs the proper slaughter. Should there be any uncertainty about the matter, it is not to be eaten.

If the blow splits the game in two, or severs its head, the entire animal may be eaten—head and body alike. Likewise, if the strike cuts off a fore-leg or a hind-leg and the animal subsequently dies from that wound, the whole animal is lawful to eat except for the detached limb.

It has been reported from Mālik and other scholars of Medina that every part of such game, whether large or small, is permissible, because a clear, deliberate hunting strike itself counts as ritual slaughter; whereas anything cut from a living creature is carrion if the creature survives the cut or if it was not game in the first place.

Mālik deemed it disliked, though not forbidden, to eat game hunted by the People of the Book, citing Allah’s words: “that which your hands and spears may reach” (Qur’an 5:94), which he understood as referring to the believers. The majority of scholars, however, consider their hunted game to be like their slaughtered animals and therefore lawful.

There is no objection to hunting with a Magian’s dog. Likewise, if a person releases his own dog and it goes out of sight, or shoots an arrow without following its flight, and later finds that the dog or the arrow has pierced the quarry’s vital organs, it is permissible to eat the game so long as a night has not passed, for fear that some other beast of the earth might have helped in killing it.

Some have said that if the dog or arrow is absent for a long time, the game should not be eaten, whether or not a night has elapsed. This is the view of those who say, “Eat only what your weapon has caused to bleed, and leave what dies otherwise.”

Others have said that the game may be eaten even after a night has passed, provided the hunter finds that his arrow or his dog has pierced the vital organs; this is the position normally applied in the established school.

If a hunter releases his dog against a group of game and the dog seizes one of them and kills it, it is lawful to eat. If, after being sent, the dog then turns aside