Question:
What is the ruling of eating rabbit?
Answer:
Alhamdulillah, praise and thanks to Allah for the many countless blessings He has blessed us all with. Blessings and salutations to the Prophet Muhammad PBUH, his wives, his family, companions and all those that follow his teachings to the day of judgement.
Before we answer this issue, it is best for us to first get to know more about rabbit and its habitat.
Definition of Rabbit and Its Habitat
Rabbit or bunny is a type of mammalian animal in the family Leporidae in the order Lagomorpha. Rabbit is identified by its elongated ears, apparent central incisor teeth in its mouth, and larger hind legs with a short tail. Rabbits can live in the wild, domesticated as pets or livestock as food for humans.
In Malay, the word “arnab” (rabbit) originates from an Arabic word arnab (أرنب). While the word “kelinci” (rabbit) in Indonesian originates from Dutch’s term konijntje which means a young rabbit or bunny. Nevertheless, this clearly shows that the society in the Archipelago region started to learn about rabbits through international trade, even though there are a native rabbit species in the Sumatera Islands identified in 1972. [1]
Habitat for Rabbit
The habitat for rabbits include meadows, woods, forests, grasslands, deserts and wetlands. Rabbits live in groups, and the best-known species, the European rabbit, lives in burrows, or rabbit holes. A group of burrows is called a warren.
More than half of the world's rabbit population resides in North America. They are also native to southwestern Europe, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, some islands of Japan, and in parts of Africa and South America. They are not naturally found in most of Eurasia, where a number of species of hares are present. Rabbits first entered South America relatively recently, as part of the Great American Interchange. Much of the continent has just one species of rabbit, the tapeti, while most of South America's southern cone is without rabbits.
The Ruling of Eating Rabbit
It is permissible to eat rabbit according to the majority of scholars. This is in accordance with a hadith from Anas bin Malik RA who said:
أَنْفَجْنَا أَرْنَبًا فَسَعَى الْقَوْمُ فَلَغَبُوا ، فَأَخَذْتُهَا وَجِئْتُ بِهَا أَبَا طَلْحَةَ ، فَذَبَحَهَا وَبَعَثَ بِوَرِكِهَا - أَوْ قَال : بِفَخِذِهَا إِلَى النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ فَقَبِلَهُ
“Once we provoked a rabbit at Marr-az-Zahran. The people chased it till they got tired. Then I caught It and brought it to Abu Talha, who slaughtered it and then sent both its pelvic pieces (or legs) to the Prophet, and the Prophet (ﷺ) accepted the present.”
Sahih al-Bukhari (2572)
Muhammad bin Safwan (or Safwan bin Muhammad) said:
اصَّدْتُ أَرْنَبَيْنِ فَذَبَحْتُهُمَا بِمَرْوَةٍ ، فَسَأَلْتُ رَسُولَ اللهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم عَنْهُمَا فَأَمَرَنِي بِأَكْلِهِمَا
“I hunted two hares and slaughtered them with a flint. I asked the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) about them. He permitted me to eat them.”
Sunan Abu Daud (2822), Sunan Ibn Majah (3175) and Sunan al-Nasa’ie (4239)
Rabbit is an animal without canine tooth and there is no evidence that prohibit it. Due to this, it is recorded that Sa’ad bin Abi Waqqas ate rabbit. The same mitigation is given by scholars among the companions of the Prophet PBUH and scholars after them. Among them are Abu Said al-Khudri, Atha’, Ibn al-Musayyib, al-Laith, Abu Thaur and Ibn al-Munzir.
May Allah SWT give us the understanding to fulfil the commandments in Islam the best we could. Amin.
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