—namely, that a human being has undertaken to kill it or to ensure its death; this is the view most widely reported from Mālik. Every melted or flowing substance in which a mouse, a gecko, or any creature possessed of flowing blood dies is thereby spoiled, and according to Mālik and the great majority of the scholars of Madinah it becomes unlawful to eat or to sell. They did, however, permit its use as lamp-fuel and the like, provided one can avoid its impurity, though it may not be burned in a mosque out of respect for the sanctuary. Some of Mālik’s companions further allowed milk or oil that had been tainted by an impurity to be washed and reused.

The hide of any carcass—whether of an animal whose flesh is ordinarily eaten or of one whose flesh is not—may not be sold unless it has first been tanned; before tanning, its sale is impermissible under all circumstances, and any report permitting it is unsound and rejected. Ibn al-Qāsim transmitted from Mālik a dislike for selling hides even after tanning, yet Ibn Wahb, Ashhab, and most scholars disagreed, citing the saying of the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and grant him peace: “Any hide that has been tanned is pure.”

It is lawful to benefit from pig bristles, but the Mālikīs differed about selling them. Ibn al-Qāsim allowed the sale, drawing an analogy with the wool shorn from a carcass, whereas most of them—including Aṣbagh—considered it disliked, for the pig is intrinsically forbidden and impure even before death, unlike wool; the animal is unlawful both alive and dead. A pig’s skin is not purified by tanning, lawful slaughter cannot render it permissible, and its sale is never allowed. This is the established position of Mālik, although Sahnūn and Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam did permit it.

Mālik was also asked about selling the hair shaved from people’s heads, and he regarded it as disliked—that is, the sale of human hair.