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Did Imam Malik permit the eating of dogs, wolves, and elephants based on the generality of Allah Almighty's saying: "Say, 'I do not find in that which has been revealed to me anything forbidden to be eaten by one who wishes to eat it'"? And what is his stance on the prohibitive hadiths?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

In the Maliki school, regarding the issue of eating predatory beasts (lion, hyena, fox, wolf), there are three opinions: prohibition, detestability, and permissibility. The well-known opinion is detestability. As for eating birds of prey, there are also the three opinions, and the well-known one is permissibility. The preponderant opinion in the school is the prohibition of eating any animal with fangs, based on the hadith of Abu Hurayrah: "The eating of any fanged beast of prey is forbidden," and this is Malik's statement in his Muwatta.

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

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