Eating hamsters

A question on eating hamsters, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that it is forbidden, since the hamster belongs to the mouse family. ¹

The questioner asked whether eating hamsters is allowed, and whether the hamster is one of the animals on which the texts are silent, so that the rule that things are permitted by default applies. ¹

The Department described the hamster as a small rodent widely kept in Europe and North America, counted in the mouse family and distinguished by wide cheeks in which it stores food. ¹ It said earlier jurists said nothing about eating it, since it was only discovered in the nineteenth century. ¹ Since it belongs to the mouse family, it takes the ruling on mice, and eating mice is forbidden; it quoted Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli that animals the sharia encourages killing, such as mice, may not be eaten. ¹ It concluded that eating hamsters is forbidden. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3847, dated 26 December 2023. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.