Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:4
They ask you, [O Muhammad], what has been made lawful for them. Say, "Lawful for you are [all] good foods and [game caught by] what you have trained of hunting animals which you train as Allah has taught you. So eat of what they catch for you, and mention the name of Allah upon it, and fear Allah." Indeed, Allah is swift in account.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
They ask you what is permitted to them. Say: Permitted to you are the good things, and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: They ask you what is permitted to them. Say: Permitted to you are the good things, and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals . The Exalted, whose praise is sublime, means by this: Your companions ask you, O Muḥammad, what is permitted to them to eat of foods and dishes. So say to them: Permitted to you of these are the good things (al-ṭayyibāt), and that is the permitted (ḥalāl) which your Lord has allowed you to eat of slaughtered animals. And permitted to you along with that is also the prey of that which you have taught the beasts and birds of prey (al-jawāriḥ), and of the hunting animals among the predatory beasts and the birds of prey. They are called jawāriḥ because they acquire prey (jarḥ) for their owners and earn for them their food from the hunt. One says of this: "So-and-so has acquired good (jaraḥa) for his family," when he has brought them good; and "So-and-so is the jāriḥa of his family," meaning: their breadwinner; and "Such-and-such a woman has no jāriḥa," when she has no breadwinner. To this also belongs the saying of Aʿshā of the Banū Thaʿlaba:
She has a cheek whose brand-mark ripens — he recalls what the acquirer (al-jāriḥ) has acquired —
that is to say: has earned. And from His words and that which you have taught He has omitted the word "and the prey of," thus "and the prey of that which you have taught the beasts and birds of prey," the mentioned part of the saying sufficing to indicate the omitted part. That is because the people, according to what has reached us, had asked the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, when he had commanded them to kill the dogs, what was permitted to them to keep and take into possession of them. Then Allah, mighty is His mention, revealed concerning that about which they asked this verse, and He made an exception of that whose keeping He had forbidden, and He permitted the keeping of hunting dogs, shepherd dogs, and field dogs, and allowed them the keeping of these.
Mention of the report concerning that:
8747 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Zayd ibn Ḥubāb al-ʿUklī related to us, saying: Mūsā ibn ʿUbayda related to us, saying: Ṣāliḥ informed us, on the authority of al-Qaʿqāʿ ibn Ḥakīm, from Salmā Umm Rāfiʿ, from Abū Rāfiʿ, who said: Jibrīl came to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and asked permission to enter upon him. He gave him permission and said: "We have already given you permission, O Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace." He said: Indeed, but we do not enter a house in which there is a dog. Abū Rāfiʿ said: Then he commanded me to kill every dog in Medina, and I killed them until I came to a woman who had a dog that barked for her, and I left it out of compassion for her. Then I came to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and reported to him, and he commanded me, so I returned to the dog and killed it. Then they came and said: O Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, what is permitted to us of this kind of animal which you have commanded to be killed? He said: Then the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, fell silent, and Allah revealed: They ask you what is permitted to them. Say: Permitted to you are the good things, and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals .
8748 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, from ʿIkrima: that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sent out Abū Rāfiʿ to kill the dogs, and he killed them until he reached the outlying districts (al-ʿawālī). Then ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAdī, Saʿd ibn Khaythama, and ʿUwaym ibn Sāʿida entered and said: What is permitted to us, O Messenger of Allah? Then it was revealed: They ask you what is permitted to them. Say: Permitted to you are the good things, and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals .
8749 - Al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr related to us, saying: We were told on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī, who said: When the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had commanded the killing of the dogs, they said: O Messenger of Allah, what then is permitted to us of this kind of animal? Then it was revealed: They ask you what is permitted to them — the verse.
Then the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed concerning the beasts and birds of prey (al-jawāriḥ) which Allah intended by His saying: and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey . Some of them said: It is everything that has been taught hunting and has mastered it, whether an animal or a bird.
Mention of who said that:
8750 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Muslim, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His saying: and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals , he said: Everything that is taught and hunts: of a dog, or a falcon, or a cheetah, or something else.
* - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn Fuḍayl related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Muslim, from al-Ḥasan: training them as hunting animals , he said: Everything that is taught and hunts, of a dog or a cheetah or something else.
8751 - Ibn Ḥumayd, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid concerning the hunting of the cheetah, he said: It belongs to the beasts of prey.
8752 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAnbasa, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from al-Qāsim ibn Abī Bazza, from Mujāhid concerning His saying: and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals , he said: The birds and the dogs.
* - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Abū Khālid al-Aḥmar related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥajjāj, from ʿAṭāʾ, from al-Qāsim Abū Bazza, from Mujāhid, the like of it.
* - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of Ḥumayd, from Mujāhid: training them as hunting animals , he said: Of the dogs and the birds.
* - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid concerning the saying of Allah: of the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals , he said: Of the birds and the dogs.
* - Al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, the like of it.
8753 - Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us (ḥ), and Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Shuʿba, from al-Haytham, from Ṭalḥa ibn Muṣarrif, he said: Khaythama ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān: This is what I have made clear to you, that the falcon (al-ṣaqr) and the hawk (al-bāzī) belong to the beasts and birds of prey.
* - Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, saying: I heard al-Haytham relating on the authority of Ṭalḥa al-Iyāmī, from Khaythama, he said: I have been informed that the falcon, the hawk, and the dog belong to the beasts and birds of prey.
8754 - Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar related to us, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, from ʿAlī ibn Ḥusayn, he said: The hawk and the falcon belong to the beasts and birds of prey.
8755 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of Sharīk, from Jābir, from Abū Jaʿfar, he said: The hawk and the falcon belong to the beasts and birds of prey that are trained as hunting animals.
8756 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals , he means by the beasts and birds of prey: the trained dogs, the cheetahs, the falcons, and what resembles them.
8757 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Ibn Ṭāwūs, from his father: and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals , he said: Of the dogs and other animals, of the falcons and the hawks and what resembles them of that which is taught.
* - Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals : The beasts and birds of prey are the trained dogs and falcons.
8758 - Saʿīd ibn al-Rabīʿ al-Rāzī related to me, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, who heard ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr say concerning His saying: of the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals , he said: The dogs and the birds.
And others said: Allah, whose praise is sublime, intended by His saying and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals only the dogs and nothing else of the beasts of prey.
Mention of who said that:
8759 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Abū Tumayla related to us, saying: ʿUbayd related to us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals , he said: They are the dogs.
8760 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His saying: and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals , he says: Permitted to you is the prey of the dogs which you have taught.
8761 - Hannād related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Zāʾida related to us, saying: Ibn Jurayj informed us, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, he said: As for that which is hunted of the birds and the hawks among the birds: what you reach alive is for you, and if not, then do not eat it.
And the soundest of the two opinions concerning the interpretation of the verse is the opinion of him who said: Everything that hunts of the birds and the beasts of prey belongs to the beasts and birds of prey, and the prey of all of that is permitted when it hunts after the training. For Allah, whose praise is sublime, by His saying and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals , designated every beast or bird of prey in general and excepted nothing of it. So every beast or bird of prey that possesses the quality which Allah has described, of any bird or beast of prey, eating its prey is permitted. And there is related from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, a report in the sense of what we have said, besides what lies in the verse of the indication which we have mentioned concerning the correctness of what we have said about this, and that is:
8762 - Hannād related this to us, saying: ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus related to us, on the authority of Mujālid, from al-Shaʿbī, from ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, who said: I asked the Messenger of Allah about the prey of the hawk, and he said: "What it holds for you, eat of it." So he permitted the prey of the hawk and counted it among the beasts and birds of prey. In that lies a clear indication of the unsoundness of the opinion of him who said: He intended by His saying and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey only what we have taught of the dogs, excluding the rest of the beasts and birds of prey. And if anyone supposes that in His saying training them as hunting animals (mukallibīn) there is an indication that the beasts and birds of prey mentioned in His saying and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey are only the dogs, then he has supposed wrongly. That is because the meaning of the verse is: Say: Permitted to you, O people, in the state in which you are owners of dogs, are the good things and the prey of that which you have taught to hunt among the acquiring beasts and birds of prey. Thus His saying training them as hunting animals is a description of the hunter, even though he sometimes hunts without the dogs. It is comparable to the saying of one who addresses a people: "Permitted to you are the good things, and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals, as believers." It is known that the speaker of this intended only to inform the people that Allah, mighty is His mention, has permitted them in the state in which they were believers the good things, and the prey of the beasts and birds of prey of which He made known to them that only that of it is permitted which they have hunted with it. So likewise His saying Permitted to you are the good things, and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals is comparable to that, in the sense that the training (taklīb) applies to the hunter with the dogs, whether his prey is hunted with them or with something else — not that it is an announcement from Allah, mighty is His mention, that of the prey only that is permitted which the dogs have hunted.
You train them from what Allah has taught you.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: You train them from what Allah has taught you . The Exalted, whose praise is sublime, means by His saying You train them : You rear the beasts and birds of prey and teach them to seek the hunt for you, from what Allah has taught you. By that He means: from the discipline (taʾdīb) with which Allah has formed you and the knowledge which He has taught you. Some of the people of interpretation have said: The meaning of His saying from what Allah has taught you is: as Allah has taught you.
Mention of who said that:
8763 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: You train them from what Allah has taught you , he says: You teach them the seeking as Allah has taught you.
But we do not know in the language of the Arabs "min" (from) in the meaning of "ka" (as/like), for "min" enters in their language in the meaning of partition (al-tabʿīḍ), and "ka" in the meaning of comparison (al-tashbīh). A particle is put in the place of another only when the two meanings of both are close to each other; but when their meanings differ, then it does not occur in their language that the one is set directly in the place of the other. And the Book of Allah and His revelation is the most sublime speech to be safeguarded from what deviates from the intelligible and from the utmost eloquence in the language of the one in whose tongue it was sent down.
8764 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ismāʿīl ibn Ṣubayḥ related to us, saying: Abū Hāniʾ related to us, on the authority of Abū Bishr, he said: ʿĀmir related to us, that ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim al-Ṭāʾī said: A man came to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to ask him about the prey of the dogs, and he did not know what to say to him, until this verse was revealed: You train them from what Allah has taught you .
It is said: The people of interpretation differed concerning that. Some of them said: It is that it is incited to seek the hunt when its owner releases it, and that it holds it (the prey) for him when it seizes it and eats nothing of it, and that it obeys him when he calls it, and does not flee from him when he wants it. When that occurs from it repeatedly, it is trained (muʿallam). This is the opinion of a group of the people of the Ḥijāz and some of the people of Iraq.
Mention of who said that:
8765 - Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: Ibn Jurayj informed us, saying: ʿAṭāʾ said: Everything that your hunting animal kills before it is taught, holds, and hunts, is carrion (mayta), and its killing of it constitutes no ritual slaughter (dhakāt) until it is taught, holds, and hunts. When that is so and it then kills, then that is its ritual slaughter.
8766 - Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: The trained dog is the one that holds its prey and does not eat of it until its owner comes to it. And if it eats of its prey before its owner comes to it and can perform its ritual slaughter, then he may not eat of its prey.
8767 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, from Ṭāwūs, from Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: When the dog eats, then do not eat, for it has then held only for itself.
8768 - Abū Kurayb and Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, both saying: Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, saying: Abū al-Muʿallā related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, he said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: When the man releases the dog and it eats of its prey, then it has spoiled it (the prey), even though he mentioned the name of Allah when he released it — for it is claimed that it has held only for itself — and Allah says: of the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals, you train them from what Allah has taught you . So he claimed that, when it eats of its prey before its owner comes to it, it is not trained, and that it is fitting that it be struck and taught until it abandons that habit.
8769 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Maʿmar al-Raqqī related to us, on the authority of Ḥajjāj, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: When the dog seizes and kills and then eats, then it is a beast of prey.
* - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Dāwūd related to us, on the authority of ʿĀmir, from Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: He may not eat of it, for if it were trained, it would not eat of it and would not unlearn what I have taught it; it has held only for itself and has not held for you.
* - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Hārūn related to us, saying: Dāwūd informed us, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, the like of it.
* - Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ḥammād, from Ibrāhīm, from Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: When the dogs eat, then do not eat.
* - Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, from al-Shaʿbī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, the like of it.
8770 - Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada related to us, saying: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: I said to ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī: The man releases his dog and it eats of it — do we eat of it? He said: No, it has not learned what I have taught it.
8771 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn Idrīs related to us, on the authority of Layth, from Mujāhid, from Ibn ʿUmar, he said: When the dog eats of a prey, then strike it, for it is not trained.
8772 - Sawwār ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, from Ibn Ṭāwūs, from his father, he said: When the dog eats, then it (the prey) is carrion, so do not eat it.
8773 - Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafa related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of Abū Bishr, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr and Sayyār, from al-Shaʿbī and Mughīra, from Ibrāhīm, that they said concerning the dog: When it eats of its prey, then do not eat, for it has held only for itself.
8774 - Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: Ibn Jurayj informed us, saying: ʿAṭāʾ said: If you find the dog while it has eaten of the prey, then leave what you find dead, for it belongs to that of which it has held no prey for you; it is only a beast of prey that has held for itself and has not held for you, even if it was trained.
8775 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: the like of it.
And others said something similar to this opinion, except that they set a limit for the knowledge that the dogs have accepted the training and belong to the beasts and birds of prey whose prey is permitted: that his dog do that three times. This is an opinion related from Abū Yūsuf and Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan.
And others among those who proclaimed this opinion said: There is no limit for the knowledge of the training of the dogs concerning that greater than that his dog do what we have described as its training. They said: When it does that, then it has become trained and its prey is permitted. This is the opinion of some of the later scholars.
And some of the proclaimers of this opinion made a distinction between the training of the hawk and the rest of the birds of prey, and the training of the dog and the hunting beasts of prey, and said: It is permitted to eat of that of which the hawk has eaten of the prey. They said: The training of the hawk is only that it flies when it is incited, and responds when it is called, and does not flee from its owner when he wants to seize it. They said: It does not belong to the conditions of its training that it not eat of the prey.
Mention of who said that:
8776 - Hannād ibn al-Sarī related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, from Ibrāhīm, and from Ḥajjāj, from ʿAṭāʾ, he said: There is no objection to the prey of the hawk, even if it has eaten of it.
8777 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, saying: Abū Isḥāq al-Shaybānī related to us, on the authority of Ḥammād, from Ibrāhīm, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that he said concerning the bird: When you release it and it kills, then eat, for the dog, when you strike it, does not repeat it; and the training of the bird is that it returns to its owner, and it is not struck. So when it eats of the prey and plucks the feathers, then eat.
8778 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: Abū Ḥamza related to us, on the authority of Jābir, from al-Shaʿbī, he said: The hawk and the falcon are not like the dog; when you release them and they hold and eat, and you call them and they come to you, then eat of it.
8779 - Hannād related to us, saying: Abū Zubayd related to us, on the authority of Muṭarrif, from Ḥammād, he said: Ibrāhīm said: Eat the prey of the hawk, even if it has eaten of it.
8780 - Hannād related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, from Ḥammād, from Ibrāhīm, and from Jābir, from al-Shaʿbī, both saying: Eat of the prey of the hawk, even if it has eaten.
* - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, from Ḥammād, from Ibrāhīm: When the hawk and the falcon eat of the prey, then eat, for it is not instructed (as the dog is).
* - Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ḥammād, from Ibrāhīm, he said: There is no objection to what the hawk has eaten of it.
8781 - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Ḥammād, that he said concerning the hawk: When it eats of it, then eat.
And others among them said: The training of the bird, the animals, and the beasts of prey is equal; no kind of them is trained except by that whereby the rest of the kinds are trained. They said: It is not permitted to eat anything of the prey hunted by a beast or bird of prey that has eaten of it, whatever that beast or bird of prey may be, an animal or a bird. They said: For it belongs to the conditions of its training, whereby its prey becomes permitted, that it hold what it has hunted for its owner and not eat of it.
Mention of who said that:
8782 - Hannād and Abū Kurayb related to us, both saying: Ibn Abī Zāʾida related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Sālim related to us, on the authority of ʿĀmir, he said: ʿAlī said: When the hawk eats of its prey, then do not eat.
8783 - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Ibn Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of Shuʿba, from Mujāhid ibn Saʿīd, from al-Shaʿbī, he said: When the hawk eats of it, then do not eat.
8784 - Hannād related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, from Sālim, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, he said: When the hawk eats, then do not eat.
8785 - Hannād related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn al-Walīd al-Sahmī, he said: I heard ʿIkrima say: When the hawk eats, then do not eat.
8786 - Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: Ibn Jurayj informed us, saying: ʿAṭāʾ said: The dog and the hawk are all one; do not eat of what it has eaten of the prey, unless you can perform its ritual slaughter and you ritually slaughter it. He said: I said to ʿAṭāʾ: The hawk plucks the feathers? He said: What you reach while it has not eaten, eat that. That he said more than once.
And others said: The training of every beast or bird of prey among the animals and the birds is equal. They said: And its training, whereby its prey becomes permitted, is that it be incited upon the prey and let itself be incited and seize the prey, and its owner call it and it respond, or that it not flee from him when he seizes it. They said: When the beast or bird of prey does that, it is trained and falls within the meaning which Allah has pronounced: and that which you have taught the birds and beasts of prey, training them as hunting animals, you train them from what Allah has taught you; so eat of what they hold for you . They said: It does not belong to the condition of its training that it not eat of the prey. They said: And how could that belong to its condition, while it is formed by its eating?
Mention of who said that:
8787 - Ibn Abī al-Shawārib related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, from Saʿīd or Saʿd, from Salmān, he said: When you release your dog upon a prey and mention the name of Allah and it eats two-thirds of it and a third remains, then eat what remains.
* - Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada related to us, saying: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Ḥumayd related to us, saying: al-Qāsim ibn Rabīʿa related to me, on the authority of someone who related it to him, from Salmān, and Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allāh, on the authority of someone who related it to him, from Salmān: that the dog seizes the prey and then eats of it, he said: Eat, even if it has eaten two-thirds of it, when you have released it and mentioned the name of Allah and it was trained.
* - Ibn Bashshār and Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, both saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, saying: I heard Qatāda relating on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, he said: Salmān said: Eat, even if it has eaten two-thirds of it; he means: the prey when it has eaten two-thirds of it; he means: the prey when the dog has eaten of it.
- Hannād related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Shuʿba, from Qatāda, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, from Salmān, the like of it.
* - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Ibn Abī ʿAdī and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad related to us, on the authority of Shuʿba (ḥ), and Hannād related to us, saying: ʿAbda related to us, all of them, on the authority of Saʿīd, from Qatāda, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, he said: Salmān said: When you release your trained dog and mention the name of Allah and it eats a third of it, then eat.
* - Hannād related to us, saying: ʿAbda related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, from Qatāda, from Saʿīd, from Salmān, the like of it.
* - Mujāhid ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, on the authority of Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Muzanī and al-Qāsim, that Salmān said: When the dog eats, then eat, even if it has eaten two-thirds of it.
* - Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Dāwūd ibn Abī al-Furāt, from Muḥammad ibn Zayd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, he said: Salmān said: When you release your trained dog or your hawk and pronounce the name (of Allah) and it eats half or two-thirds of it, then eat the rest of it.
8788 - Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Makhrama ibn Bukayr informed me, on the authority of his father, from Ḥumayd ibn Mālik ibn Khuthaym al-Duʾalī, that he asked Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ about the prey of which the dog eats, and he said: Eat, even if there remains of it only a piece (ḥidhya) — that is to say: a morsel.
8789 - Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad related to me, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Rabbihi ibn Saʿīd, he said: I heard Bukayr ibn al-Ashajj relating on the authority of Saʿd, he said: Eat, even if it has eaten two-thirds of it.
8790 - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Saʿīd ibn al-Rabīʿ related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Rabbihi ibn Saʿīd, he said: I heard Bukayr ibn al-Ashajj, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab — Shuʿba said: I said: Did you hear it from Saʿīd? He said: No — he said: Eat, even if it has eaten two-thirds of it. He said: Then Shuʿba said in his narration on the authority of Saʿd: Eat, even if it has eaten half of it.
8791 - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Dāwūd related to us, on the authority of ʿĀmir, from Abū Hurayra, he said: When you release your dog and it eats of it, and it eats two-thirds of it and a third remains, then eat.
* - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Hārūn related to us, saying: Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind informed us, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, from Abū Hurayra, the like of it.
* - Hannād related to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, from al-Shaʿbī, from Abū Hurayra, the like of it.
* - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Sālim ibn Nūḥ al-ʿAṭṭār related to me, on the authority of ʿUmar — that is to say Ibn ʿĀmir — from Qatāda, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, from Salmān, he said: When you release your trained dog and it seizes and kills, then eat, even if it has eaten two-thirds of it.
8792 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: al-Muʿtamir related to us, saying: I heard ʿAbd Allāh (ḥ), and Hannād related to us, saying: ʿAbda related to us, on the authority of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, from Nāfiʿ, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, he said: When you release your trained dog and mention the name of Allah, then eat of what it holds for you, whether it has eaten or not.
* - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb related to us, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh related to us, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, the like of it.
8793 - Yūnus related to us, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Abī Dhiʾb informed me that Nāfiʿ related to them: that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar saw no objection in eating the prey when the dog had killed it and eaten of it.
* - Yūnus related this to me once more and said: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar and Ibn Abī Dhiʾb and more than one related to me, that Nāfiʿ related to them on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, and he mentioned the like of it.
* - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Abī Dhiʾb related to us, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar: that he saw no objection in what the hunting dog had eaten.
* - Hannād related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, from Bukayr ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ashajj, from Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Saʿd, he said: I said: We have hunting dogs that eat and leave (a part) remaining? He said: Eat, even if there remains only a morsel.
* - Hannād related to us, saying: Qabīṣa related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, from Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, from Yaʿqūb ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ashajj, from Ḥumayd, he said: I asked Saʿd, and he mentioned the like of it.
And the soundest of the opinions therein concerning the interpretation of His saying You train them from what Allah has taught you is, in our view, that the training which Allah mentions in this verse for the beasts and birds of prey is only that the man teach his beast or bird of prey the letting-itself-be-incited (al-istishlāʾ) when it is incited upon the prey, and the seeking of it when it is urged, or the holding of it for him when it seizes without eating anything of it, and that it not flee from him when he wants it, and that it respond to him when he calls it. That is the training of all beasts and birds of prey, their birds and their animals. And if a beast or bird of prey of the hunter eats of the prey, then his beast or bird of prey at that moment is not trained. If its owner reaches it (the prey) alive and ritually slaughters it, then eating it is permitted to him; and if he reaches it dead, then it is not permitted to him, for it belongs to that which the beast of prey has eaten, which Allah the Exalted has forbidden by His saying: and what the beast of prey has eaten , while its ritual slaughter has not been reached. And we have said that only as the soundest of the opinions therein, because of the mutual corroboration of the reports of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.
8794 - Ibn Ḥumayd related this to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim ibn Sulaymān al-Aḥwal, from al-Shaʿbī, from ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim: that he asked the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, about the prey, and he said: "When you release your dog, then mention the name of Allah over it. If you reach it and it has killed and eaten of it, then eat nothing of it, for it has held only for itself."
* - Abū Kurayb and Abū Hishām al-Rifāʿī related to us, both saying: Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl related to us, on the authority of Bayān ibn Bishr, from ʿĀmir, from ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, he said: I asked the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and said: We are a people who hunt with these dogs? He said: "When you release your trained dogs and mention the name of Allah over them, then eat of what they hold for you, even if they have killed, except when the dog eats; for if it eats, then do not eat, for I fear that it has held it only for itself."
And if anyone says: What is your opinion concerning that which:
8795 - ʿImrān ibn Bakkār al-Kalāʿī related to you, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Dīnār related to us, on the authority of Abū Iyās, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, from Salmān al-Fārisī, from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, he said: "When the man releases a dog upon the prey and reaches it while it has eaten of it, then let him eat what remains."
It is said: This is a report in whose chain of transmission (isnād) there is a defect, for it is not known that Saʿīd heard from Salmān, and the trustworthy ones among the people of the reports halt this saying at Salmān (as his own word) and relate it from him on his own authority, not raised (marfūʿ) to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. And the trustworthy ḥadīth-preservers, when they follow one another in transmitting something with a particular quality and a single one deviates from them who does not possess their precision, then the group of the trustworthy ones is more entitled to the correctness of what they have transmitted than the single one who does not possess their precision.
And when the matter concerning the dog is as I have mentioned, namely that, when it eats of the prey, it is not trained, so likewise is the ruling concerning every beast or bird of prey: that that of which it has eaten of the prey is not (caught) by a trained (one); it is not permitted to him to eat its prey, unless he reaches the ritual slaughter of it.
So eat of what they hold for you.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: So eat of what they hold for you . He means by His saying So eat of what they hold for you : So eat, O people, of what your beasts and birds of prey hold for you. The people of interpretation differed concerning the meaning of that. Some of them said: That applies according to the outward and the general, as Allah made it general: permitted is the eating of everything that the dogs and the trained beasts and birds of prey hold for us of the prey whose eating is permitted, whether the beast or bird of prey and the dogs have eaten of it or not, whether the ritual slaughter has been reached and it has been ritually slaughtered, or the ritual slaughter has not been reached until the beasts and birds of prey have killed it, whether by their wounding of it, or without wounding. This is the opinion of those who said: The training of the beasts and birds of prey, whereby their prey becomes permitted, is that they learn to let themselves be incited upon the prey and to seek it when they are incited upon it, and to seize it, and to leave off fleeing from their owner, without the eating of their prey having to be left off when they have hunted it. And we have just mentioned the opinion of the proclaimers of this view and the report from them with their chains of transmission.
And others said: No, that applies according to the particular and not according to the general. They said: The meaning of it is: So eat of what they hold for you of the prey in its entirety, not a part of it. They said: If the beasts and birds of prey eat a part of it and hold a part, then that which they have held of it is not permissible to eat, while they have eaten a part of it, for they have held that which they held of that prey only after they have eaten of it, for themselves and not for us; and Allah the Exalted, whose mention is sublime, has permitted us only everything that our trained beasts and birds of prey hold for us, by His saying: So eat of what they hold for you , not what they have held for themselves. This is the opinion of him who said: The training of the beasts and birds of prey, whereby their prey becomes permitted, is that they let themselves be incited upon the prey when they are incited upon it and seek it and seize it, and hold it for their owner without eating anything of it, and do not flee from their owner. And we have already mentioned of him who said that, in the foregoing, a large group, and we mention here yet another group of them.
8796 - Al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: So eat of what they hold for you , he says: Eat of what they have killed. ʿAlī said: And Ibn ʿAbbās used to say: If it has killed and eaten, then do not eat; and if it has held and you reach it alive, then ritually slaughter it.
8797 - Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: If the trained dog eats of its prey before its owner comes to it and can perform its ritual slaughter, then he may not eat of its prey.
8798 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: So eat of what they hold for you : When the dog hunts and holds it (the prey) while it has killed it and has not eaten of it, then it is permitted; and if it eats of it, then it is said: it has held only for itself, so eat nothing of it, it is not trained.
8799 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: They ask you what is permitted to them up to His saying: So eat of what they hold for you, and mention the name of Allah over it , he said: When you release your trained dog or your bird or your arrow and mention the name of Allah and it seizes or kills, then eat.
8800 - It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say: When you release your trained dog and mention the name of Allah at the moment you release it, and it holds or kills, then it is permitted; and when it eats of it, then do not eat it, for it has held it only for itself.
8801 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, from al-Shaʿbī, from ʿAdī, concerning His saying: So eat of what they hold for you , he said: I said: O Messenger of Allah, my land is a hunting land? He said: "When you release your dog and mention the name, then eat of what your dog holds for you, even if it has killed; and if it eats, then do not eat, for it has held only for itself."
And we have already clarified the soundest of the two opinions therein earlier, so that it absolves us from repeating it and resuming it.
And if anyone says: What is the reason for the addition of "min" (from/of) in His saying: So eat of what they hold for you , while Allah has permitted us the prey of our beasts and birds of prey, whereas "min" enters into speech only to make that into which it enters partitive? It is said: The people of Arabic linguistics differed concerning the meaning of its entering in this place. Some grammarians of Basra said, when "min" entered in this place, that it was without meaning, as the Arabs let it enter in their saying: "There was of rain (kāna min maṭar)" and "There was of an event (kāna min ḥadīth)." He said: To this also belongs His saying: and He blotted out for you of your evil deeds , and His saying: and He sends down from the sky, from mountains therein, of hail . He said: And that is, according to what is explained: and He sends down from the sky mountains in which there is hail. He said: And some of them said: and He sends down from the sky, from mountains therein, of hail , that is to say: from the sky, of hail, the mountains of hail being placed in the sky and the sending-down being from them.
And others among the people of Arabic linguistics rejected that and said: "Min" enters only for an intelligible meaning, without which the speech is not permissible and is not sound, and that is because it indicates partition (al-tabʿīḍ). And he said: The meaning of their saying: "There was of rain, there was of an event" is: Was there of rain any rain with you, and was there of an event any event with you. And he said: The meaning of and He blotted out for you of your evil deeds is: and He blotted out for you of your evil deeds what He wills and wishes. And concerning His saying and He sends down from the sky, from mountains therein, of hail , he permits the omission of "min" in of hail , but does not permit its omission at the mountains ; and he explains the meaning of that as: and He sends down from the sky likenesses of mountains of hail. Then "min" was inserted at the hail; for the hail is with him an explication of the likenesses — I mean: the likenesses of the mountains — and the mountains are set in the place of the likenesses, and the mountains are mountains of hail. So he does not permit the omission of "min" at the mountains, for it indicates that that which is in the sky, from which the hail is sent down, are likenesses of mountains of hail, and he permitted the omission of "min" at the hail ; for the hail is an explication of the likenesses, as you say: "With me are two raṭl of oil (zaytan)" and "With me are two raṭl of oil (min zayt)," while you do not possess the raṭl but possess only the quantity. So "min" enters into the explicative and exits from it. And so it is with the proclaimer of this opinion: from the sky, of likenesses of mountains, and not mountains. And he said: And even though He has sent down from mountains in the sky of hail mountains, and then omitted "the mountains," the second, and "the mountains," the first, are in the sky — then it is permissible; you say: "I have eaten of the food," meaning by it: I have eaten of the food food, and then you omit "food" and you do not drop "min."
And the correct saying therein is, that "min" enters into speech only for an intelligible meaning, and that its omission may be permissible in some speech while the speech does need it, because of the indication of what of the speech is visible upon that; but that it should be in the speech without a meaning which it adds by its entering — that we have already clarified in the foregoing as not permissible to occur in what is correct of speech. And the meaning of its entering in His saying: So eat of what they hold for you is for partition, since the beasts and birds of prey hold for their owners that whose flesh Allah has permitted them and whose stomach-contents and blood He has forbidden them. So the Exalted, whose praise is sublime, said: So eat of what they hold for you — your beasts and birds of prey — the good things which I have permitted you of their flesh, not what I have forbidden you of their impurities, of the stomach-contents and the blood and what resembles them of that which I have not made pleasing for you. That is the meaning of the entering of "min" therein. And as for His saying: and He blotted out for you of your evil deeds , we have already clarified the reason for its entering in the foregoing in a manner that absolves us from repeating it. And as for its entering in His saying: and He sends down from the sky, from mountains , that we shall clarify when we come to it, if Allah the Exalted wills.
And mention the name of Allah over it.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: and mention the name of Allah over it . The Exalted, whose praise is sublime, means by His saying and mention the name of Allah over what your beasts and birds of prey hold for you of the prey. As:
8802 - Al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: and mention the name of Allah over it , he says: When you release your beast or bird of prey, say: in the name of Allah (bismillāh); and if you forget it, then there is no objection.
8803 - Muḥammad related to us, saying: Aḥmad related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His saying: and mention the name of Allah over it , he said: When you release it, then mention the name (of Allah) over it at the moment you release it upon the prey.
And fear Allah; truly, Allah is swift in the reckoning.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: And fear Allah; truly, Allah is swift in the reckoning . The Exalted, whose praise is sublime, means: And fear Allah, O people, in that which He has commanded you and that which He has forbidden you; be on your guard therein lest you pass to the transgression of it, and lest you eat of the prey of the untrained beasts and birds of prey, or of that which they have not held for you of their prey but have held for themselves, or lest you eat that over which the name of Allah has not been pronounced of the prey and the slaughtered animals, of that which the idolaters and the worshippers of the idols and those who do not acknowledge Allah as the One among His creatures have hunted or slaughtered. Truly, Allah has forbidden that to you, so avoid it. Then He made them fear, should they do what He has forbidden them of that and of other things, and said: Know that Allah is swift in His reckoning of whom He reckons concerning His favor upon him among you, and the gratitude of the grateful among you toward his Lord for what He has bestowed upon him, through his obedience to Him in what He has commanded and forbidden; for He guards all of that in you and encompasses it — nothing of it escapes Him — and thus He recompenses the obedient among you for his obedience and the disobedient for his disobedience, and He has already clarified to you the recompense of the two groups.
