#324: Ruling on Eating Snakes
QUESTION
“Assalamu Alaykum Shaykh, Please we would like to know what is the ruling on eating snakes?”
ANSWER
Wa alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh.
Alhamdulillāh
As for the eating of snakes, the position favoured by the Mālikīs is that it is permissible if it is free from poison and the it is captured and slaughtered literally.
As for the Shāfi’ī and the Hanbalī Schools, they held that it were Harām.
The proof upon which they based their verdict is the Hadīth in which the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – commanded the killing of snakes as was recorded by Imām Muslim from ‘Ā’ishah – radiyallāhu ‘anha:
خمس فواسق يقتلن في الحل والحرم: الحية والغراب الأبقع والفأرة والكلب العقور والحديا
“Five transgressing creatures should be killed whether outside Ihram or in it: the Snake, the Hooded Crow, the Mouse, the Wild Dog and the Kite”
The general Agreed Upon Precept with the Ulamā of Fiqh is that whichever Animal we are commanded to kill is forbidden for consumption.
This makes the position held by the Shāfi’īs and the Hanbalis stronger. And Allah knows best.
Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran
16th Safar 1439AH
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