English translation
2488. Narrated ‘Abāya bin Rifā’a bin Rāfi’ bin Khadāj: My grandfather said, “We were in the company of the Prophet ﷺ at Dhul-Ḥulaifa. The people were struck with hunger and captured some camels and sheep (as booty). The Prophet ﷺ was behind the people. They hurried and slaughtered the animals and put their meat in pots and started cooking it. (When the Prophet ﷺ (1) (Ch. 2) Equally means: As one owner (of sheep) as regards the Zakāt. came) he ordered the pots to be upset(1) and then he distributed the animals (of the booty), regarding ten sheep as equal to one camel. One of the camels fled and the people ran after it till they were exhausted. At that time there were few horses. A man threw an arrow at the camel, and Allāh stopped the camel with it. The Prophet ﷺ said, 'Some of these animals are like wild animals, so if you lose control over one of these animals, treat it in this way (i.e., shoot it with an arrow)'." My grandfather added, "We were afraid that we may meet the enemies in the future and have no knives; [we asked the Prophet ﷺ, 'can we slaughter the animals with reeds?']" The Prophet ﷺ said, "Use whatever causes blood to flow, and eat the animals if the Name of Allāh has been mentioned on slaughtering them. Do not slaughter with teeth or fingernails and I will tell you why: It is because teeth are bones (i.e., cannot cut properly) and fingernails are the tools used by the Ethiopians (whom we should not imitate for they are infidels)."