"And the jerboa is a gazelle, the hare is a young gazelle, and the pigeon is a sheep"

The Shaykh : He said: "And regarding the jerboa, it is a gazelle". The jerboa is also a known animal; it resembles a mouse but is longer in its legs and has a long tail with much hair at its end. It is one of the cleverest animals of its kind because it digs a burrow in the ground and makes a door for it, then digs at the end of the burrow until only a thin layer remains. If someone drives it out from the door of the burrow, it exits through the thin layer, which is called the *nafaq* (exit), meaning the exit of the jerboa. This is why the word *nifaq* (hypocrisy) is derived from it, because this jerboa is a hypocrite in its burrow, but it is a permissible hypocrisy, as it seeks to protect itself. If someone drives it out from the door of the burrow, it slips out through this exit and flees. It is lawful, and the ruling for it is a gazelle, which has four months of gestation. "And regarding the hare, it is a young gazelle". It is smaller than the gazelle, meaning it has approximately three and a half months of gestation. The hare is well known. Look now: the jerboa weighs as much as the head of a hare, and yet the obligation for it is greater than the obligation for the hare. Why? Because the basis for the ruling is similarity. He said: "And regarding the pigeon, it is a sheep". The gazelle has four months of gestation, and the young gazelle is less than that. As for the pigeon, it is a sheep. The similarity between the pigeon and the sheep is only in drinking, not in structure or form. The pigeon is a sheep. All of this was ruled upon by the Companions. Some of them ruled upon it individually, meaning it is narrated from one of the Companions, and some of it is narrated from more than one. If we find something among the game for which the Companions have not issued a ruling, we appoint two just and knowledgeable experts and ask what among the livestock resembles this. If they say such and such, we rule accordingly. If we do not find anything ruled upon by the Companions and do not find a resemblance among the livestock, then it is of the kind that has no counterpart, and its value is the value of this game, whether it is little or much.