He said: "Feed it to those who are halal (not in a state of ihram), for we are in a state of ihram." Then Ali said: "I adjure you by Allah, whoever is here from the tribe of Ashja', do you know that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was gifted a wild donkey, and he refused to eat it?" They said: "Yes." And because it is the meat of game, it is forbidden to the one in ihram, just as if one had pointed it out. Our position is what Jabir narrated, saying: I heard the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) say: "The game of the land is lawful for you, as long as you do not hunt it yourselves, or it is hunted for you." Narrated by Abu Dawud, al-Nasa'i, and al-Tirmidhi (13), who said: It is the best hadith on this subject. This is explicit regarding the ruling, and it provides a reconciliation between the hadiths, and an explanation of the differences among them. For the Prophet's (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) abstention from eating what was gifted to him may be due to his knowledge or his suspicion that it was hunted for his sake; and it is incumbent to interpret it as such, due to what [has been established] (14) from the hadith of Abu Qatadah, and the Prophet's (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) command to his companions to eat the donkey that he (Abu Qatadah) had hunted. It is also narrated from Talhah that a bird was gifted to him while he was sleeping, so some of his companions who were in a state of ihram ate it, while some were cautious and abstained. When Talhah woke up, he approved of (15) those who had eaten it and said: "We ate it with the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)." Recorded by Muslim (16). In al-Muwatta' (17), it is stated that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) set out intending for Mecca