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Is An'am 6:145 general, and the Prophet's (peace be upon him) words regarding the prohibition of domestic donkeys and beasts of prey specific to it, or is the verse unrestricted and his (peace be upon him) words a restriction to it?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The majority of scholars hold that it is forbidden to eat any beast of prey with fangs or any bird of prey with talons, except for what has been exempted, such as the hyena. They rely on later hadiths that specify the general meaning of the verse in Surah Al-An'am: "Say, 'I do not find in what has been revealed to me anything forbidden to a consumer who eats it, except that it be a dead animal or blood poured forth or the flesh of swine — for indeed, that is impure.'" Ibn Kathir, Al-Qurtubi, Al-Shawkani, and Ibn Hajar have mentioned that the verse in Surah Al-An'am is Makkan and was revealed in response to what the Arabs had forbidden. After it, other things were forbidden in Madinah, such as animals with fangs and talons, and impure things. Malik's opinion on the flesh of beasts of prey varied; sometimes he stated it was forbidden and other times that it was disliked (makrooh). Al-Nawawi and others argued that the verse informs about what was forbidden at the time of its revelation, and then the prohibition of other things was revealed afterwards.

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

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