Kangaroo Meat: Prohibited to Eat?

The eminent Muslim scholar and Da`iyah, Sheikh `Abdel Khaliq Hasan Ash-Shareef, states the following: “If Kangaroo has claws, then it will be prohibited to eat as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is reported to have, “forbade the eating of any wild animal with a canine tooth and of any bird with talons.” (Reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim)

Thus, if the Kangaroo has claws and it is known to be classed as part of the animal family which devour, it will be then considered a wild beast which is forbidden to eat. If it usually eats plants and doesn’t devour other animals or human beings for meat, then it is permissible to eat it as long as it doesn’t have claws.

All in all, there is no text from either the Qur’an or the Sunnah which give a special ruling about the Kangaroo, and hence the ruling concerning it is applied according to the two above variations.