What is the Ruling on Eating Rabbit Meat?

Foods with the basic ingredients of rabbit meat are found in various preparations, some are in the form of rabbit satay, rabbit curry, rabbit tongseng, and so on.

Many Muslim people do not understand the law of eating it, because what we know is that rabbit meat is usually used as a pet. The question is, is rabbit meat including animals that are halal to eat?

Mentioned on the NU Online website, four madzhabs in Islam allow eating rabbit meat. However, according to Abdullah bin ‘Amru bin ‘Ash and Ibn Abi Laila, eating rabbit is something that is not liked (karahah). These provisions are in accordance with the things described in the book Hayat al-Hayawan al-Kubra.

يحل أكل الأرنب عند العلماء كافة ، إلا ما حكي عن عبد الله بن عمروبن العاص ، وابن أبي ليلى رضي الله عنهم ، أنهما كرها أكلها

“It is lawful to eat rabbit according to all scholars, except for the opinion narrated from Abdullah bin ‘Amru bin ‘Ash and Ibn Abi Laila, that both of them do not like eating rabbits.” (Shaykh Kamaluddin ad-Damiri, Hayat al-Hayawan al-Kubra, juz 1, page 37)

The four schools of thought in Islam also underlie the permissibility of eating rabbit meat with the following arguments:

ويحل أكل الارنب لقوله تعالى (ويحل لهم الطيبات) والارنب من الطيبات

“It is lawful to eat rabbits, based on the Word of God “And who justifies everything that is good for them” (Surah Al-A’raf: 157). Rabbits are part of the good things (thayyibat)” (Shaykh Yahya bin Sharaf an-Nawawi, al-Majmu ‘ala Syarh al-Muhadzab, Juz 9, page 10).

It can be concluded that it is permissible to eat rabbit meat, even the Prophet Muhammad himself did it.

Consuming rabbits is not an issue because rabbits are some of the animals that are lawful for consumption, it’s just a matter of how rabbit meat is slaughtered according to Islamic law.