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Is it permissible to eat a bird that was hit by a car on the road, then had its neck broken while it was still alive?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is not permissible to eat a bird killed by a car collision unless it has been ritually slaughtered (dhaka); because it is considered among the mauqudha (that which has been beaten to death) and the diseased, which are forbidden to eat, unless they are slaughtered according to the majority of scholars. Breaking the neck is not a valid form of Islamic slaughter (tadhkiyah). Legal slaughter is performed by cutting the throat (dhabh) or by stabbing the jugular (nahr), based on the Prophet's (PBUH) saying: "Whatever causes the blood to flow and the name of Allah is mentioned over it, then eat." And based on Allah's (SWT) saying: "Forbidden to you are carrion, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and that on which any other name than that of Allah has been invoked, and the strangled (al-munkhaniqah), and the beaten to death (al-mauqudha), and the fallen (al-mutaraddiyah), and the gored (an-natihah), and that which has been partially eaten by a wild animal — unless you are able to slaughter it [in the Islamic way]."

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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