Hunting the harmful pigeons of the Haram inside the market and releasing them far from the market
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Praise be to Allah alone, and blessings and peace be upon the one after whom there is no prophet. After that: The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta has reviewed what was sent to His Eminence the Grand Mufti from the questioner: Hassan ibn Qasim Babur, through the Director of the Da'wah and Guidance Center in the province of Jeddah, and referred to the Committee by the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars with number
(577) and date 23/4/1432 AH. The questioner asked a question, the text of which is as follows: We are a retail markets company, and we have markets spread across the cities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including Makkah al-Mukarramah and al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (inside the area of the Haram ). The problem we are currently facing is the presence of large flocks of birds (sometimes exceeding 80 birds) inside each of these markets located in the area of the Haram (in Makkah and al-Madinah ). These birds have become feeding and breeding inside the markets in an abnormal manner, not to mention the health and environmental problems they cause, as their droppings fall on the food and their impurity mixes with the legumes, cheeses, and other bread products, thereby repelling our customers and causing us great difficulty with them. Out of our company's concern for the health of its customers and providing them with safe and healthy food, we have decided to engage a specialized company to control these birds through traps prepared for that purpose to catch the adult pigeons, as well as to remove the pigeon nests, eggs, and chicks. This work may result in the spoilage of some eggs or the death of some of the birds during the catching process. After that, the caught birds will be collected and released far from the area where they were collected to ensure they do not return to the market again.
Our question to your eminence is regarding the legitimacy of hunting pigeons (inside the area of the Haram ) in such a case? Please inform us, may Allah reward you with good, and may Allah protect you.
After the Committee's study of the inquiry, it answered: A committee was tasked to assess the reality of what the questioner mentioned, and the committee's report stated the following: We inform your eminence that we visited the branch mentioned on Sunday, corresponding to 3/7/1432 AH, and the following became clear to us: First: The market consists of one large hall under a single roof, and the roof has intersecting columns and air conditioning pipes. Second: We saw a large number of pigeons in the market, and we saw their traces and droppings on the food and the contents of the market with all its supplies. Third: We saw the rice bags torn by the pigeons because they ate from them, and we also found bean sticks scattered in places in the market, and the manager told us that the pigeons take them to the top and make their nests from them, so the sticks fall in the corners of the market floor. Fourth: The market floor is dirty due to the dirt and droppings of the pigeons, which hinders pedestrians while shopping. Fifth: We reviewed the field visit records of the municipality and found in it the imposition of fines on the company owner for not removing these birds and hunting them.
Sixth: We observed the new additional door that the center manager stated was installed two weeks ago to prevent birds from entering again. After discussing with the branch manager the roof of this market, which contains intersecting columns and air conditioning pipes and is a place prepared for pigeons to remain, he informed us that the company rectified this negative aspect when building a new branch in Makkah by making the roof a false ceiling system so that the columns and air conditioning pipes are hidden above the ceiling. This was recorded in a report of our visit to the aforementioned branch. After the committee studied the matter, it became clear to them that there is apparent harm from the presence of these pigeons at the aforementioned site, and because the principle of the Shari'ah is that actual harm is removed; due to the generality of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):Sunan Ibn Majah 2340Da'if (Darussalam) . It was narrated by the Imam Ahmad and Ibn Majah and al-Daraqutni , and al-Nawawi graded it as good , and based on that, it is permissible to move the pigeons from the aforementioned site, along with their young and eggs, and to remove their nests gently as much as possible, and whatever is destroyed during the move without intention does not incur any penalty or anything else.
(577) and date 23/4/1432 AH. The questioner asked a question, the text of which is as follows: We are a retail markets company, and we have markets spread across the cities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including Makkah al-Mukarramah and al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (inside the area of the Haram ). The problem we are currently facing is the presence of large flocks of birds (sometimes exceeding 80 birds) inside each of these markets located in the area of the Haram (in Makkah and al-Madinah ). These birds have become feeding and breeding inside the markets in an abnormal manner, not to mention the health and environmental problems they cause, as their droppings fall on the food and their impurity mixes with the legumes, cheeses, and other bread products, thereby repelling our customers and causing us great difficulty with them. Out of our company's concern for the health of its customers and providing them with safe and healthy food, we have decided to engage a specialized company to control these birds through traps prepared for that purpose to catch the adult pigeons, as well as to remove the pigeon nests, eggs, and chicks. This work may result in the spoilage of some eggs or the death of some of the birds during the catching process. After that, the caught birds will be collected and released far from the area where they were collected to ensure they do not return to the market again.
Our question to your eminence is regarding the legitimacy of hunting pigeons (inside the area of the Haram ) in such a case? Please inform us, may Allah reward you with good, and may Allah protect you.
After the Committee's study of the inquiry, it answered: A committee was tasked to assess the reality of what the questioner mentioned, and the committee's report stated the following: We inform your eminence that we visited the branch mentioned on Sunday, corresponding to 3/7/1432 AH, and the following became clear to us: First: The market consists of one large hall under a single roof, and the roof has intersecting columns and air conditioning pipes. Second: We saw a large number of pigeons in the market, and we saw their traces and droppings on the food and the contents of the market with all its supplies. Third: We saw the rice bags torn by the pigeons because they ate from them, and we also found bean sticks scattered in places in the market, and the manager told us that the pigeons take them to the top and make their nests from them, so the sticks fall in the corners of the market floor. Fourth: The market floor is dirty due to the dirt and droppings of the pigeons, which hinders pedestrians while shopping. Fifth: We reviewed the field visit records of the municipality and found in it the imposition of fines on the company owner for not removing these birds and hunting them.
Sixth: We observed the new additional door that the center manager stated was installed two weeks ago to prevent birds from entering again. After discussing with the branch manager the roof of this market, which contains intersecting columns and air conditioning pipes and is a place prepared for pigeons to remain, he informed us that the company rectified this negative aspect when building a new branch in Makkah by making the roof a false ceiling system so that the columns and air conditioning pipes are hidden above the ceiling. This was recorded in a report of our visit to the aforementioned branch. After the committee studied the matter, it became clear to them that there is apparent harm from the presence of these pigeons at the aforementioned site, and because the principle of the Shari'ah is that actual harm is removed; due to the generality of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):
It was narrated from 'Ubadah bin Samit that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) ruled: “There should be neither harming nor reciprocating harm.”
لا ضرر ولا ضرار
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.