What Animals are Haram?

ARTICLE

haram animals

catagories OF HARAM ANIMALS

Listed below, the basic Islamic principles of permissibility and impermissibility with regards to animal consumption. Muslim scholars ¹ have classified prohibited ( haram ) land and air animals into six catagories. These are:

1. Animals specifically stated in the Quran and Sunnah as haram , such as domestic donkeys and pigs .
2. Animals restricted by certain characteristics and criteria, like fanged beasts of prey (predators) and birds with talons .
3. Scavengers that feed on carrion (dead animals), like vultures, crow , insects .
4. Whatever is pernicious and causes harm, injury, ruin, like rats, snakes, scorpions , raccoon, and the kite hawk .
5. Whatever is born as a result of copulation between two animal species, one of which is lawful to be eaten and the other which is prohibited, like the mule .
6. Whatever the Shari'ah has ordered us to kill, like the five pernicious animals, and what Allah has forbidden us from killing, like the frog , the hoopoe (a crested bird) and the shrike (a bird with a hooked, jagged bill).

All other animals and birds are considered lawful, according to the rule stating that anything is deemed halal (lawful) ^{2, 3} until proved otherwise.

REferences:

[1] Each of the four Sunni ( Shafa'i, Maliki, Hanbali & Hanafi ) and the Shi'a ( Jafari ) Schools of Thought developed principles of permissibility with regards to which animals are lawful ( halal ) and which are unlawful ( haram ) for consumption. That being said, the basis for their jurisprudence is the common source of guidance for all Muslims—the Quran & Sunnah. While the principles above are representative of the whole, variations may exist.

[2] There are separate rules with regards to slaughtering and hunting halal animals. Failure to comply with these rules may render a halal animal haram.

[3] The jallalah of halal animals (cows, chicken, camels, etc.) are temporarily excluded from the lawful foods until they can be cleansed.

A list haram animals