drowned in water, then do not eat it, for you cannot know whether the water killed it or your arrow.

Unfamiliar terms
• miʿrāḍ: the mīm carries a kasrah, the ʿayn is quiescent, and after the alif comes a dotted ḍād. The shaykh said it is a stick whose head is bent; the lexicographers describe it as a featherless arrow, plural maʿārīḍ.
• fakharraqa: Ibn Fāris explains that the root kh-r-q conveys the idea of penetrating what is struck; here it means the missile pierced the target.
• al-Shaʿbī: with an open shīn and quiescent ʿayn. He is ʿĀmir ibn Sharāḥīl, the well-known hadith transmitter.

Points derived from the hadith

1. The game taken by a trained hunting animal—dog, cheetah, falcon, goshawk, and the like—is lawful when the hunter pronounces the name of Allah at release, whether he reaches the quarry alive or dead.
2. Game captured jointly by a trained and an untrained dog is forbidden, for a permissive factor (the trained dog) and a prohibitive factor (the untrained dog) have converged; the principle is to avoid doubtful matters.
3. Pronouncing the divine name when releasing the missile is obligatory. “Arrow” here covers every projectile weapon, including firearms of all kinds and designations. Forgetfulness or ignorance excuses the omission of the basmalah.
4. Because the basmalah is a condition, game killed by both a trained and an untrained animal is unlawful: the name of Allah was not spoken over the latter.
5. Since intention and training are required of the predator, any quarry from which the animal has eaten is unlawful, lest it hunted for itself rather than for its master.
6. If the hunter reaches wounded game—whether struck by a weapon or seized by the predator—while it is still alive, he must perform ritual slaughter. If he finds it dead, the weapon’s impact or the predator’s kill counts as its slaughter.
7. Should a wounded animal fall into water and it is genuinely uncertain whether it died by drowning or by the weapon, it is forbidden to eat. If the preponderance of evidence indicates death by the weapon—because the water is shallow and the wound severe—the meat is lawful. The ruling applies whenever permissive and prohibitive factors coincide.
8. When the miʿrāḍ or any other weapon kills by its sharp edge and penetration, the game is lawful because the blood is let flow; but if it kills by blunt force and weight, it is unlawful, for that is mawqūdhah (an animal fatally beaten to death).