#625: ruling on eating Alligator

QUESTION

“Assalamu alaikum pls wat is d islamic ruling on eating aligator. D one found in d forest.jazakallahu khair”

ANSWER

Wa Alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh

As for the Alligator, it is an animal that lives in swampy lands and walk well on land but feed on preys when mature

As for the ruling of it’s eating, the majority of the Fuqahā held that it was Harām. This is the position held by the Hanafi, the Shāfi’ī and he Hanbalī Schools

Whereas the Mālikiyyah held that it were permissible

As for the majority, their position is substantiated with the fact that the Alligator is possessed of the canines with which it feeds on prey.

And any animal falling under this category has been made Harām by virtue of the Hadīth recorded by Muslim and others and is Sahih from Abū Tha’alabah Al-Khushanī – rahimahullāh – that the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – said:

كل ذي ناب من السباع فأكله حرام

“Every carnivorous animal possessed of fangs, it’s eating is Harām”

But the Malikis considered that it was an animal that predominantly lives in water and took the Hadith that permitted eating water animals generic in this regard.

But the position held by the Malikis is weak in this regard.

One, the Alligator is of the water animals that live on land also. They are therefore more amphibian than they are aquatic. The ruling of anything that is mixed is the preponderance of the most probable. In the case of the Alligator, it is closer to land than to water.

Two, the Ulamā have made it a principle that the aquatic animals referred in the Hadīth are animals that live in water alone. This is the most dominant position among the Ulamā.

Three, it’s a precept in Fiqh that whenever the ruling of a thing bears similarity to a thing which is Harām and another which is Halāl, preponderance is accorded to that which is Harām.

Imām An-Nawawī – rahimahullāh – explained all of this in the Majmū’.

Bārakallāhu Fīkum
Jazakumullāhu Khayran

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