Benefits of the Hadith Prohibiting the Meat of Domestic Donkeys

The Shaykh : It contains evidence for the prohibition of domestic donkeys and evidence for the permissibility of discretionary punishment and the permissibility of waiving discretionary punishment. The discretionary punishment is because he said, in the first instance: The reason this is a discretionary punishment is that breaking them destroys them, even though this harm can be avoided by what? By washing them. Thus, it contains evidence for the permissibility of discretionary punishment by destroying property, and the correct view is that discretionary punishment by destroying property is permissible, just as it is permissible by beating, imprisonment, and the like. It also contains evidence for the permissibility of intercession in discretionary punishment, unlike the fixed Qur'anic punishments. Intercession is permissible in discretionary punishment because it was said, "Or we will wash them," and he said: If it had been a fixed Qur'anic punishment, intercession would not have been permissible in it. For this reason, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) rebuked Usamah ibn Zayd when he interceded for the woman from the Khazraj tribe. He said to him: Abu Dawud narrated with a good chain that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Yes, it is good. In this, there is evidence that if something ritually impure is placed in vessels, they must be washed. This is the point of the evidence from the hadith, due to the author's mention of the vessels of the Zoroastrians, because the Zoroastrians are among those whose slaughter is not lawful. If they cook in the vessels, the vessels become ritually impure because their slaughtered animals are carrion. If they are ritually impure, it is obligatory to wash them, an obligation to wash them in order to purify them.