then eat it. And whatever you bring down with your untrained dog, if you reach it while it is still alive and are able to perform the ritual slaughter, then eat it as well.”
Unfamiliar terms
• al-Khushani: pronounced with ḍamma on the khāʾ and fatḥa on the shīn, followed by nūn and yāʾ; an attribution to Khushayna, a clan of Qudaʿah from the Qaḥṭānite tribes.
• bi-qawsi: “with my bow,” an ancient, well-known projectile weapon; the word carries a fatḥa on the qāf, a sukūn on the wāw, a kasra on the sīn, and ends with the first-person yāʾ.
• my trained dog: the dog that has been taught how to hunt. The manner of training will be discussed later.
Overall meaning
Abū Thaʿlabah told the Prophet ﷺ that they lived beside People of the Book—meaning Jews or Christians—and asked whether it was permissible to eat from their vessels, given the likelihood that such vessels were ritually impure. The Prophet granted permission on two conditions: (1) that they have no other vessels available, and (2) that they wash them first.
Abū Thaʿlabah also said that they lived in a land rich in game and that he hunted with his bow, with a dog properly trained in the etiquette of hunting, and with another dog that was untrained. He wanted to know which of these methods produced lawful game.
The Prophet ruled that whatever he shot with his bow was lawful, provided he pronounced Allah’s name when releasing the arrow. Game taken by a trained dog is likewise lawful, on the same condition. Game taken by an untrained dog is not lawful unless the hunter finds it alive and performs the prescribed dhakāh (ritual slaughter) before it dies.
Points derived from the ḥadith
1 It is permissible to use the utensils—and by extension the clothing—of non-Muslims when no alternatives are available, provided one washes them first.
2 Here, the general rule that “the default state of things is purity” is overridden by a strong presumption that such people do not avoid impurity; the stronger presumption prevails when it is well-founded.
3 Hunting with a bow or with a trained dog is lawful on the condition that the hunter pronounces Allah’s name when releasing either of them. According to the well-known view among the legal schools, if he omits the name deliberately—or even out of forgetfulness—the game is not lawful; another view, narrated from Imam Aḥmad and preferred by some, holds that if he omits it out of forgetfulness or ignorance the game remains lawful, and this is the sounder opinion.
4 The outward sense of the ḥadith indicates that game taken by a predatory animal is lawful to eat whether the animal kills it by biting or by battering it. This is the position of al-Shāfiʿī and a narration from Imam Aḥmad, preferred by Ibn Hāmid and Abū Muḥammad al-Jawzī among his followers and apparent from the wording of al-Khirāqī, based on the generality of the Qur’anic verse. The predominant Hanbalī view, however, is that if the prey dies by strangulation or by being struck, it is not lawful.