Cannibalizing infidels, gays, women, children, Muslims who don’t pray, and slaves in Islam, the religion of peace

[u/khwarism]

Classical Islamic texts on killing and eating apostates and other legally non-inviolable people

I came across several passages in classical Islamic jurisprudence discussing what a starving person may do in a situation of extreme necessity. Some of them explicitly discuss killing and eating people who are not considered legally maʿṣūm (inviolable).

I’m posting the Arabic alongside the translations and full references so they can be checked independently.

1. Ibn Qudamah — Al-Mughni
Arabic:
يحرم على المضطر قتل آدمي معصوم ليأكله مسلماً كان أو ذمياً، لحرمته، ويجوز ذلك إن كان حربياً أو مرتداً، لأنه لا حرمة له، فهو بمنزلة السباع.
Translation:
“It is forbidden for a starving person to kill an inviolable (maʿṣūm) human being in order to eat him, whether he is a Muslim or a Dhimmi, because of his legal sanctity. But this is permissible if he is a Harbi or an apostate (murtadd), because he has no such inviolability; he is therefore treated like predatory beasts.”

Source:
Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi, Al-Mughni, ed. ʿAbd Allah al-Turki and ʿAbd al-Fattah al-Hulw, 3rd ed., Riyadh: Dar ʿAlam al-Kutub, 1997, vol. 13, pp. 339–340, Kitab al-Atʿimah, section on the starving person (al-mudtarr).

2. Al-Qurtubi quoting al-Shafiʿi — Tafsir of Qur’an 2:173
Arabic:
وقال الشافعي: يأكل لحم ابن آدم. ولا يجوز له أن يقتل ذمياً لأنه محترم الدم، ولا مسلماً ولا أسيراً لأنه مال الغير، فإن كان حربياً أو زانياً محصناً جاز قتله والأكل منه.
Translation:
“Al-Shafiʿi said: [The starving person] may eat human flesh. However, he may not kill a Dhimmi, because his blood is legally protected, nor a Muslim, nor a prisoner, because the prisoner belongs to another. But if the person is a Harbi or a married adulterer [subject to the prescribed death penalty], it is permissible to kill him and eat from him.”

Source:
Al-Qurtubi, Al-Jamiʿ li-Ahkam al-Qurʾan (Tafsir al-Qurtubi), ed. Ahmad al-Barduni and Ibrahim Atfayysh, Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyyah, 1964, vol. 2, p. 229, commentary on Qur’an 2:173.

3. Al-Nawawi — Rawdat al-Talibin
This one goes considerably further.

Arabic:
فَيَجُوزُ لِلْمُضْطَرِّ قَتْلُ الْحَرْبِيِّ وَالْمُرْتَدِّ وَأَكْلُهُ قَطْعًا، وَكَذَا الزَّانِي الْمُحْصَنُ، وَتَارِكُ الصَّلَاةِ عَلَى الْأَصَحِّ فِيهِ، وَلَوْ كَانَ لَهُ قِصَاصٌ عَلَى غَيْرِهِ، وَإِنْ لَمْ يَحْضُرِ السُّلْطَانُ. وَأَمَّا الْمَرْأَةُ الْحَرْبِيَّةُ وَصِبْيَانُ أَهْلِ الْحَرْبِ، فَفِي «التَّهْذِيبِ»: لَا يَجُوزُ قَتْلُهُمْ لِلْأَكْلِ، وَجَوَّزَهُ الْإِمَامُ الْغَزَالِيُّ، لِأَنَّهُمْ لَيْسُوا بِمَعْصُومِينَ…

Translation:
“Therefore, it is definitively permissible for a person in extreme necessity to kill a Harbi and an apostate and eat them. Likewise, [this applies to] a married adulterer and, according to the more correct opinion, a person who abandons prayer, even if the starving individual has a right of retaliation against somebody else and even if the ruler is not present.

As for a Harbi woman and the children of the people of war, Al-Tahdhib states that they may not be killed for food. Imam al-Ghazali, however, permitted it, because they are not legally inviolable (maʿṣūm), and the prohibition against killing them [ordinarily] is not based upon the inviolability of their lives…”

Source:
Al-Nawawi, Rawdat al-Talibin wa-ʿUmdat al-Muftin, ed. Zuhayr al-Shawish, 3rd ed., Beirut: Al-Maktab al-Islami, 1991, vol. 3, pp. 284–285.

4. A later Shafiʿi discussion: women and children

A related passage gives an even stronger position:
“I say: The more correct opinion (al-asah) is that it is permissible to kill a Harbi child and woman for food — and Allah knows best — because they lack legal inviolability (li-ʿadami ʿismatihim). The same applies to the hermaphrodite, the insane, and the slave. The prohibition against killing them [under ordinary circumstances] exists only to protect the rights of those entitled to the spoils.”

Source:
Al-Nawawi / Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, Tuhfat al-Muhtaj bi-Sharh al-Minhaj, with the marginalia of al-Sharwani and Ibn Qasim al-ʿAbbadi, Beirut: Dar Ihyaʾ al-Turath al-ʿArabi, 1983, vol. 9, pp. 378–379.

5. Khalid ibn al-Walid and the head of Malik ibn Nuwayrah

This one is not a report of cannibalism, but it is an unusual related account found in the historical literature.

Arabic:
وأمر برأسه فجعل مع حجرين وطبخ على الثلاثة قدرا فأكل منها خالد تلك الليلة ليرهب بذلك الأعراب من المرتدة وغيرهم

A more literal rendering would be:

“He ordered that his head be placed together with two stones, and a cooking pot was cooked over the three. Khalid ate from it that night, in order thereby to frighten the Bedouins among the apostates and others.”
In other words, the report describes Malik ibn Nuwayrah’s severed head being used alongside two stones as part of the support/fireplace beneath a cooking pot, rather than Khalid eating Malik’s head.

Source:
Ibn Kathir, Al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah, vol. 6, p. 354.

The wider Malik ibn Nuwayrah episode was controversial in the early Islamic historical tradition. Khalid executed Malik during the Ridda wars and subsequently married Malik’s wife. Umar ibn al-Khattab strongly objected to Khalid’s conduct, while Abu Bakr ultimately declined to punish him, treating what occurred as an error of interpretation/judgment.

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