Al-Qur'an Surah Al-Ma'idah Verse 96

Mufti Taqi Usmani

Made lawful for you is the game of the sea and eating thereof, as a benefit for you and for travellers. But the game of the land has been made unlawful for you as long as you are in the state of IHrām. Fear Allah (the One) towards Whom you are to be brought together.

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran

It is lawful for you to hunt and eat seafood, as a provision for you and for travellers. But hunting on land is forbidden to you while on pilgrimage. Be mindful of Allah to Whom you all will be gathered.

Ruwwad Translation Center

It is lawful for you to hunt and eat seafood, as a provision for you and for the travelers. But hunting land animals is forbidden to you as long as you are on pilgrimage. And fear Allah to Whom you will be gathered.

A. J. Arberry

Permitted to you is the game of the sea and the food of it, as a provision for you and for the journeyers; but forbidden to you is the game of the land, so long as you remain in pilgrim sanctity; and fear God, unto whom you shall be mustered.

Abdul Haleem

It is permitted for you to catch and eat seafood- an enjoyment for you and the traveller- but hunting game is forbidden while you are in the state of consecration [for pilgrimage]. Be mindful of God to whom you will be gathered.

Abdul Majid Daryabadi

Allowed unto you is the game of the sea and the eating thereof: a provision for you and for the caravan; and forbidden unto you is the game of the land while ye are in the state of sanctity. And fear Allah unto whom ye shall be gathered.

Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Lawful to you is the pursuit of water-game and its use for food,- for the benefit of yourselves and those who travel; but forbidden is the pursuit of land-game;- as long as ye are in the sacred precincts or in pilgrim garb. And fear Allah, to Whom ye shall be gathered back.

Abul Ala Maududi

The game of the water and eating thereof are permitted to you as a provision for you (who are settled) and for those on a journey; but to hunt on land while you are in the state of Pilgrim sanctity is forbidden for you. Beware, then, of disobeying Allah to Whom you shall all be mustered.

Ahmed Ali

Lawful is all game of the water for you, and eating of it as food, so that you and the travellers may benefit by it. But unlawful is game of the jungle when you are on pilgrimage. Fear God before whom you have to gather in the end.

Ahmed Raza Khan

It is lawful for you to hunt from the sea and to eat from it, for your benefit and that of the travellers; and hunting on land is forbidden for you while you are on the pilgrimage; and fear Allah, towards Whom you will arise.

Ali Quli Qarai

You are permitted the game of the sea and its food, a provision for you and for the caravans, but you are forbidden the game of the land so long as you remain in pilgrim sanctity, and be wary of Allah toward whom you will be gathered.

Ali Ünal

(To hunt and eat) the game in the sea, its (fish and other) edibles are lawful for you, a provision for you and for travelers (whom you want to feed). However, while you are in the state of pilgrim sanctity, you are forbidden to hunt on land (or slaughter and eat of animals that you get others to hunt for you). Keep from disobedience to God in due reverence for Him, to Whom you will be gathered.

Amatul Rahman Omar

It is made lawful for you (even when you are in a Pilgrim´s garb to hunt) the game of the sea (and water) and to eat its food; a provision for you and for the travellers (who can make it a provision for their way), but unlawful for you is the game of the land as long as you are in Pilgrim´s garb or in the Sacred Precincts. Keep your duty to Allâh, to Whom you shall be gathered.

English Literal

Permitted/allowed for you is the sea`s hunting/fishing, and its food, enjoyment to you and to the caravan/people often moving , and forbidden on you (is) the shore`s/land`s hunting/trapping as long as you continued in compliance with pilgrimage prohibitions , and fear and obey God, who to Him you are being gathered.

Faridul Haque

It is lawful for you to hunt from the sea and to eat therefrom, for your benefit and that of the travellers; and hunting on land is forbidden for you while you are on the pilgrimage; and fear Allah, towards Whom you will arise.

Hamid S. Aziz

Allah has made the Kaaba, the Sacred House, to be a standard (or an Asylum of Security) for men, and also the Sacred Month, and the Offering (sacrifices) and its Garland (which mark them); this is so that you may know that Allah knows what is in the heavens and what is in the earth, and that Allah is Knower of all things.

Hilali & Khan

Lawful to you is (the pursuit of) water-game and its use for food - for the benefit of yourselves and those who travel, but forbidden is (the pursuit of) land-game as long as you are in a state of Ihram (for Hajj or 'Umrah). And fear Allah to Whom you shall be gathered back.

Maulana Mohammad Ali

O you who believe, kill not game while you are on pilgrimage. And whoever among you kills it intentionally, the compensation thereof is the like of what he killed, from the cattle, as two just persons among you judge, as an offering to be brought to the Ka’bah, or the expiation thereof is the feeding of the poor or equivalent of it in fasting, that he may taste the unwholesome result of his deed. Allah pardons what happened in the past. And whoever returns (to it), Allah will punish him. And Allah is Mighty, Lord of Retribution.

Mohammad Habib Shakir

Lawful to you is the game of the sea and its food, a provision for you and for the travellers, and the game of the land is forbidden to you so long as you are on pilgrimage, and be careful of (your duty to) Allah, to Whom you shall be gathered.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall

To hunt and to eat the fish of the sea is made lawful for you, a provision for you and for seafarers; but to hunt on land is forbidden you so long as ye are on the pilgrimage. Be mindful of your duty to Allah, unto Whom ye will be gathered.

Muhammad Sarwar

It is lawful for you to hunt from the sea and to eat seafood. This is for your benefit and for the benefit of travellers. However, it is not lawful for you to hunt on land as long as you are in the sacred precinct. Have fear of God before whom you will all be raised.

Qaribullah & Darwish

Made lawful to you is the fished of the sea and its food, an enjoyment for you and for travelers. But you are forbidden the hunted of the land whilst you are on pilgrimage. Have fear of Allah, before whom you shall all be assembled.

Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri

Lawful to you is water game and its use for food -- for the benefit of yourselves and those who travel, but forbidden is (the pursuit of) land game as long as you are in a state of Ihram. And have Taqwa of Allah to Whom you shall be gathered back.

Wahiduddin Khan

To hunt and to eat the fish of the sea is made lawful for you, a provision made for you and for seafarers. But you are forbidden the game of the land while you are on a pilgrimage. Have fear of God, before whom you shall all be gathered.

Talal Itani

Permitted for you is the catch of sea, and its food—as sustenance for you and for travelers. But forbidden for you is the game of land while you are in pilgrim sanctity. And fear God, to whom you will be gathered.

Tafsir jalalayn

Permitted to you, O people, be you in pilgrimage inviolability or not, is the game of the sea, for consumption, and it is what can only live in the sea, such as fish, but not what is able to live both in the sea and on land, such as crabs; and food from it, what it casts out that is dead, is a provision for you, for you to consume, and for the wayfarers, the travellers among you, to take as their provisions; but forbidden to you is the hunting of game on the land, and this consists of those edible beasts that live on it; do not hunt them, so long as you remain in pilgrimage inviolability; if it is caught by one not in pilgrimage inviolability, then it is permissible for a person in pilgrimage inviolability to consume it, as is clarified in the Sunna; and fear God, to whom you shall be gathered.

Tafseer Ibn Kathir

Water Game is Allowed for the Muhrim

Allah says;

أُحِلَّ لَكُمْ صَيْدُ الْبَحْرِ وَطَعَامُهُ

Lawful to you is (the pursuit of) water game and its use for food,

Sa`id bin Al-Musayyib, Sa`id bin Jubayr and others commented on Allah's statement;
أُحِلَّ لَكُمْ صَيْدُ الْبَحْرِ
(Lawful to you is (the pursuit of) water game...), that it means,

what one eats fresh from it,

while,
وَطَعَامُهُ
(And its use for food) what is eaten dry and salted.

Ibn Abbas said that;

`water game' refers to what is taken from water while still alive,

while,
وَطَعَامُهُ
(and its use for food) refers to what the water throws ashore dead.

Similar statements were reported from Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, Zayd bin Thabit, Abdullah bin `Amr, Abu Ayub Al-Ansari, Ikrimah, Abu Salamah bin Abdur-Rahman, Ibrahim An-Nakhai and Al-Hasan Al-Basri.

Allah's statement,

مَتَاعًا لَّكُمْ وَلِلسَّيَّارَةِ

for the benefit of yourselves and those who travel,

as food and provision for you,

وَلِلسَّيَّارَةِ
(and those who travel),

According to Ikrimah,

those who are in the sea and traveling along the sea.

Other scholars said that;

water game is allowed for those who fish it from the sea, as well as, when it is salted and used as food for travelers inland.

A similar statement was reported from Ibn Abbas, Mujahid and As-Suddi and others.

Imam Malik bin Anas recorded that Jabir bin Abdullah said,

"Allah's Messenger sent an army towards the east coast and appointed Abu Ubaydah bin Al-Jarrah as their commander, and the army consisted of three hundred men, including myself.

We marched on until we reached a place where our food was about to finish. Abu Ubaydah ordered us to collect all the food for our journey, and it was collected in two bags of dates.

Abu Ubaydah kept on giving us our daily ration in small amounts from it, until it was exhausted. The share of each of us used to be one date only."

I (one of the narrators from Jabir) said,

"How could one date suffice for you?"

Jabir replied, "We came to know its value when even that finished."

Jabir added, "When we reached the seashore, we saw a huge fish which was like a small mountain. The army ate from it for eighteen days. Then Abu Ubaydah ordered that two of its ribs be affixed in the ground. Then he ordered that a she-camel be ridden, and it passed under the two ribs (forming an arch) without touching them."

This Hadith was also collected in the Two Sahihs.

Malik recorded that Abu Hurayrah said,

"A man asked Allah's Messenger, `O Allah's Messenger! We go to sea and carry little water with us. If we use it for Wudu, we get thirsty, so should we use seawater for Wudu?"

The Messenger of Allah said,

هُوَ الطَّهُورُ مَاوُهُ الْحِلُّ مَيْتَتُه

Its water is pure and its dead are lawful."

The two Imams, Ash-Shafii and Ahmad bin Hanbal, recorded this Hadith, along with the Four Sunan compilers.

Al-Bukhari, At-Tirmidhi and Ibn Hibban graded it Sahih.

This Hadith was also recorded from the Prophet by several other Companions.
Hunting Land Game is Prohibited During Ihram

Allah said,

وَحُرِّمَ عَلَيْكُمْ صَيْدُ الْبَرِّ مَا دُمْتُمْ حُرُمًا

but forbidden is land game as long as you are in a state of Ihram.

Therefore, hunting land game during Ihram is not allowed, and

if someone who is in the state of Ihram hunts, he will have to pay expiation, along with the sin he earns if he does it intentionally.

If he hunts by mistake, he will have to pay the expiation and is not allowed to eat from it, because this type of game is just like dead animals, be he a Muhrim or a non-Muhrim.

If someone who is not in the state of Ihram hunts and gives the food to a Muhrim, the Muhrim is not allowed to eat from its meat if it was killed for him in particular.

As-Sa`b bin Jaththamah said that;

he gave a zebra as a gift to the Prophet in the area of Waddan or Abwa', the Prophet gave it back. When the Prophet saw the effect of his returning the gift on As-Sa`b's face, he said,

إِنَّا لَمْ نَرُدَّهُ عَلَيْكَ إِلاَّ أَنَّا حُرُم

We only gave it back to you because we are in a state of Ihram.

This Hadith was collected in the Two Sahihs.

The Prophet thought that As-Sa`b hunted the zebra for him, and this is why he refused to take it. Otherwise, the Muhrim is allowed to eat from the game if one who is not in Ihram hunts it.

For when Abu Qatadah hunted a zebra when he was not a Muhrim and offered it to those who were in the state of Ihram, they hesitated to eat from it.

They asked the Messenger of Allah and he said,

هَلْ كَانَ مِنْكُمْ أَحَدٌ أَشَارَ إِلَيْهَا أَوْ أَعَانَ فِي قَتْلِهَا



Did any of you point at it or help kill it?

They said, "No."

He said,

فَكُلُوا

Then eat, (and he also ate from it).

This Hadith is also in the Two Sahihs with various wordings.

(Ibn Kathir only mentioned Ayat 96 to 99 here and explained the better part of Ayah number 96, but he did not mention the explanation of the rest of that Ayah or the other Ayat (97 to 99). This is the case in all of the copies of his Tafsir in existence, and he might have forgotten to do that, for it is less likely that all who copied this book forgot to copy only this part. So we used a summary of the Tafsir of these Ayat from the Imam of Tafsir, Ibn Jarir At-Tabari. We tried to summarize At-Tabari's eloquent words to the best of our ability, by Allah's help and leave).

وَاتَّقُواْ اللّهَ الَّذِيَ إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ



And have Taqwa of Allah to Whom you shall be gathered back.

Allah says, fear Allah, O people, and beware of His might, by obeying what He commands you and avoiding what He prohibits for you in these Ayat revealed to your Prophet.

These Ayat forbid Khamr, gambling, Al-Ansab and Al-Azlam, along with hunting land game and killing it while in the state of Ihram. To Allah will be your return and destination, and He will punish you for disobeying Him and will reward you for obeying Him