Hadith Four
On the authority of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh (may Allah be pleased with him): “The Prophet ﷺ forbade the meat of domestic donkeys and permitted the meat of horses.”
Muslim alone transmits the wording: “During the expedition of Khaybar we ate horses and wild donkeys, while the Prophet ﷺ forbade (the meat of) domestic donkeys.”
Hadith Five
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Awfā (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “Hunger overtook us on the nights before Khaybar. When the day of Khaybar arrived we came upon some domestic donkeys and slaughtered them by stabbing their throats. When the pots began to boil with their meat, a herald of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ announced: ‘Turn the pots over’—and he may also have said: ‘and do not eat anything of the meat of domestic donkeys.’”
Hadith Six
Abū Thaʿlabah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared the meat of domestic donkeys unlawful.”
Lexical notes
• al-ḥumur al-ahliyya (“domestic donkeys”): so called because they live in close association with people.
• ḥumur al-waḥsh (“wild donkeys”): termed waḥsh (“wild”) because they stay away from humans; they are game animals that resemble the domestic donkey but are smaller in build and are now popularly called al-waḍīḥī.
• akfiʾū al-qudūr (“tip over the pots”): read with a hamzah of qaṭʿ from the quadriliteral verb ʾakfaʾa; some narrate it with a hamzah of waṣl from the triliteral kafaʾa, both meaning “to overturn.”
Lessons derived from these three hadiths
- The meat of domestic donkeys is unequivocally prohibited. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr stated: “There is no disagreement among the scholars today regarding its prohibition.” Prior to the revelation of the ruling and the command to pour it out of the pots, it remained on its original presumption of permissibility.
- The rationale for the prohibition is that the animal is described as rijs (filthy, impure). Since the hadith states, “for they are rijs,” its urine, dung, and blood are likewise deemed impure.