Is it permissible to eat the meat of chickens that have not been slaughtered in Europe, by analogy with the permissibility of eating the meat of hunted birds?
None of the scholars have said that chicken is a game animal that does not require dhakat (ritual slaughter), and it is not permissible to eat chicken that has not been ritually slaughtered according to Islamic law. Permissible birds may only be eaten after dhakat (ritual slaughter), which involves slaughtering and mentioning the name of Allah by a Muslim or a person of the Book. It is permissible to eat a bird if a hunter shoots it with the intention of dhakat and it dies before being slaughtered, or if a predatory animal hunts it and it dies. However, this does not apply to chickens due to the ease of catching and slaughtering them. The opinion of Ibn al-Arabi al-Maliki, which permits eating chicken whose neck a person of the Book wrings, even if it dies as a result, is a remote and rejected view.
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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