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Fatwa CenterDrinking animal blood for dire necessity
Question
Assalaamu alaykum. Please, do not refer me to other fatwas. May Allaah bless you. What does Islam say about drinking the blood of an animal like a hen or a goat and so on? And what about soldiers who perform their duty in cold areas where they usually do not have much means to survive in that freezing cold, so they drink the blood of an animal, which makes their blood warm from the inside? Is is permissible to do so in Islam in order to serve on the border?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Blood is impure, and it is forbidden to drink it, as Allah says (what means): {Prohibited to you are dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine…} [Quran 5:3] Allah also says (what means): {He has only forbidden to you dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine and that which has been dedicated to other than Allah. But whoever is forced [by necessity], neither desiring [it] nor transgressing [its limit] - then indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.} [Quran 16:115]
Therefore it is not permissible for the soldiers or for anybody else to drink blood regardless of whether it be from animals or otherwise, except in case of dire necessity due to the previous verse {But whoever is forced [by necessity], neither desiring [it] nor transgressing [its limit] - then indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.}.
The Fiqh Encyclopedia reads:
“Necessity is fearing to die either by knowing this or believing that it is most likely, or when a person reaches the extent that if he does not consume what is forbidden, he will die… However, it is a condition for the permissibility of benefiting from what is forbidden that it is due to a dire necessity, in a way that a person finds himself in a situation wherein he fears death, and that the fear is immediate and not expected, and that there is no other means to repel the necessity. The hungry person is not allowed to benefit from a dead animal before he faces a hunger in which he fears death…”
For more benefit, please refer to fatwas 117406 and 86493.
Guarding the borders is not in itself a valid excuse for eating what Allah has forbidden.
Allah knows best.
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