Hunting for recreation

Question

Question: A person wants to have a gun licence made solely for the purpose of hunting lawful and unlawful animals and obtaining pleasure and recreation. The habit of hunting for recreation is like other pastimes that are defined as amusement and play (lahw wa la‘ib); hence the expense on cartridges and the like sometimes, as a rule, just keeps growing.

Answer

Hunting, whether of a lawful or of an unlawful animal, is mubah and proper according to the Shari‘a when some lawful purpose of the hunter is attained by it: for example, the aim is to obtain the meat of a lawful animal, or some item of an animal is wanted — its feathers, or hair, or hide, or horns, or bones and the like — or, for example, the aim is merely to ward off harm,…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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