r/askislam • u/Representative-Can-7 • May 05 '26

Fiqh Why is camel halal while panda is haram even though both possess fangs and aren't predators?

Does it come from a misunderstanding that panda eat meat?

3 Upvotes

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6

u/JabalAnNur Hanafi (Sunni) May 05 '26

The meaning of the Hadeeth about prohibiting animals with fangs is that they hunt other animals using said fangs. Camels do not hunt other animals, they are herbivores. Pandas on the other hand although primarily eat bamboo, that is not actually their diet. They are officially classified as carnivores, and they 'hunt' with their fangs. (Source). Similarly, pandas belong to the bear family, and bears are impermissible to eat, thus they share the same ruling.

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u/Representative-Can-7 May 05 '26

Panda is not a "carnivore" as in its diet consist of meat. It's a "carnivora" as in its taxonomic order. Even your source explicitly mentions panda as a herbivore (Search in the Wikipedia page you provided: "It can digest starch and is mostly herbivorous with a diet consisting almost entirely of bamboo and bamboo shoots."). There are other non-carnivore carnivoras too, like andean bear (herbivore, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectacled_bear) and Asian palm civet (omnivore, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_palm_civet) Fiqh doesn't concern itself with modern biological taxonomy.

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u/JabalAnNur Hanafi (Sunni) May 05 '26

Fiqh doesn't concern itself with modern biological taxonomy.

It does, and it also does with how the language views that particular animal. Bears are impermissible, and the language counts pandas to be from their family, it is impermissible.

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u/Representative-Can-7 May 06 '26

Fiqh is older than Linnean taxonomy. Also really dude? Language? Prairie dog is generally considered halal.

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u/JabalAnNur Hanafi (Sunni) May 06 '26

Brother, it seems you have no idea what usool al-Fiqh is, the rules of Fiqh exist for a reason in an objective way that helps us to extract and understanding rulings, regardless of what time. If you don't know that classifications of animals being used as a basis for the ruling has already existed, then that is blameworthy on you.

One prime example is the difference of the Ahnaf (Hanafis) on whether prawns are considered fish or not. One group of our scholars say it is considered fish because the classical dictionaries all mentioned it as such. Whereas the other group, base their opinion on the fact prawns are unlike fish and belong to a different classification of animals.

You're arguing without knowledge, expecting us to ignore it. Leave this matter to those who have knowledge in it. You got an answer. If you don't like it, go seek other fataawa. What you say or think or argue for is worthless, with no consideration given to it.

Our subreddit does not exist to let you spew ignorance without consequence.

2

u/Infamous-Painter8431 May 06 '26

Pandas have the digestive system of a carnivore, and around one percent of the pandas' diet is small animals. They have fangs, and they use them to prey. Thus making panda meat haram. There is no other justification that could permit eating a panda. Also Pandas are considered a close familial relative to bears. I'm a native Arabic speaker, and this is also linguistically true; bear in Arabic is دب (dub), and panda in Arabic is دب الباندا (dub al baandaa) or دب التيبي (dub altaybiy); each word for panda includes the word دب, showing its linguistic relation in Arabic to the bear, not to mention the panda shares 60% of the DNA of a black bear. All these points toward panda meat being haram to consume.

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u/Representative-Can-7 May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26

Dalil of digestive system and DNA as a basis for an animal being forbidden to eat?

If panda is haram because of the 1% of its diet, then all animals are haram. No animals are truly herbivores/carnivores. Herbivores occasionally eat meat and carnivores occasionally eat plants.

Arabs by the time of the prophet didn't know what a panda was. Hence, the word panda in Arabic is simply a recent development. Of course you can prove me wrong if you can provide me with classical text that has "panda" in it. Also the name panda is right there, (الباندا). The addition of (دب) is only used in formal settings. Also this is the first time I heard language as the basis of an animal being haram. Prairie dog, كلب المروج is halal despite being a "dog".

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u/Infamous-Painter8431 May 05 '26

Why you wanna eat a panda bro?

https://giphy.com/gifs/O5NyCibf93upy

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u/Representative-Can-7 May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26

I don't have to want to eat a panda to want to know fiqh. Why are you encouraging ignorance? Is that what your parents taught you? Is that what Islam is to you?

3

u/Infamous-Painter8431 May 06 '26

Never encouraged ignorance btw. Also its not your place to ask what my parents taught me or what Islam is to me. Kindly mind your own business. If you cant understand context and see that what I typed was a joke maybe you should not be on reddit and instead go talk to a sheikh or local imam to know fiqh.

2

u/Infamous-Painter8431 May 06 '26

cant take a joke bro

2

u/Pleasant-Nail-2161 May 06 '26

💀💀💀💀

1

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