Explanation of the Book of Foods-09a

The reciter: Ali ibn Abdullah narrated to us, Sufyan narrated to us, he said: Amr said: قلت لجابر بن زيد يزعمون أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم نهى عن حمر الأهلية، فقال قد كان يقول ذاك الحكم بن عمرو الغفاري عندنا بالبصرة ولكن أبى ذاك البحر ابن عباس وقرأ : قل لا أجد فيما أوحي إلي محرماً I asked Jabir ibn Zayd, "They claim that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade the meat of domesticated donkeys." He said: "Al-Hakam ibn Amr al-Ghifari used to say that among us in Basra, but al-Hasan ibn Abbas rejected that and recited: 'Say: I do not find in what has been revealed to me [anything] forbidden.'".

The Shaykh : That is sufficient. There is no doubt that the correct ruling is the prohibition of the meat of domesticated donkeys. As for Ibn Abbas's denial of the prohibition and his argument using the verse, that is an error on his part (may Allah be pleased with him). It shows that no matter how great a person is in jurisprudence and how deep his knowledge, he is not free from error. For the noble verse, Allah the Exalted says: . This surah is Meccan and was revealed before the prohibition of donkey meat, because the prohibition of donkey meat occurred in Khaybar in the sixth year of the Hijrah. Furthermore, the verse is not in this wording: "Say: I will not find in what has been revealed to me." If it were "I will not find," it would refer to the future, and it would not be possible for it to abrogate a past event, as it is a statement of fact. But the verse is , meaning now, , and that is the case. The prohibition of donkey meat was in Medina in the sixth year of the Hijrah... I say: Allah said "I do not find." If He had said "I will not find," the evidence for Ibn Abbas would have been valid. But Allah said: .