Is it halal to eat insects or spiders?

Locusts are halal by the Sunnah, and every school agrees on them: the Companions ate them on campaign with the Prophet ﷺ. On other insects the scholars differed (ikhtalafa al-ʿulamāʾ). The Hanafi, Shafi’i, and Hanbali schools count crickets, beetles, and worms among the foul things (al-khabāʾith, الخبائث) that the Quran forbids, while the Maliki school permits small land creatures killed with the intention of eating them, provided they do no harm.

So is it halal to eat insects? Locusts and grasshoppers, yes. For farmed crickets, mealworms, and cricket flour, the stronger view (al-rājiḥ) follows Imam Malik and permits them. Spiders are a separate case, and many people ask about them first.

Is it halal to eat spiders?

The question is searched in Arabic as often as in English (هل يجوز أكل العنكبوت), and most scholars answer that the spider is not eaten. The Hanafi, Shafi’i, and Hanbali schools place it among the creeping creatures (al-ḥasharāt) that they forbid as khabāʾith, a group from which they except only the locust. The Maliki principle is wider: a small creature killed with intention is lawful as long as it does not harm the one who eats it.

Spiders carry venom, and nothing of value is lost by leaving them, so the sound counsel is to leave them. A Muslim who has swallowed one by accident has eaten nothing the Quran names as haram. Killing a spider in your home is a separate question: Is it haram to kill spiders and insects?

Are locusts and grasshoppers halal?

Locusts are the one insect the Sunnah names as food. ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Awfā (may Allah be pleased with him) said:

«غَزَوْنَا مَعَ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم سَبْعَ غَزَوَاتٍ أَوْ سِتًّا، كُنَّا نَأْكُلُ مَعَهُ الْجَرَادَ»

“We went out on seven campaigns with the Prophet ﷺ, or six, and we used to eat locusts with him.”

Sahih al-Bukhari 5495

Muslim records the same report (Sahih Muslim 1952a). Locusts are a swarming kind of grasshopper, so the ordinary grasshopper shares their ruling.

Jurists also cite this report from ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar:

«أُحِلَّتْ لَنَا مَيْتَتَانِ وَدَمَانِ فَأَمَّا الْمَيْتَتَانِ فَالْحُوتُ وَالْجَرَادُ وَأَمَّا الدَّمَانِ فَالْكَبِدُ وَالطِّحَالُ»

“Two dead things and two bloods have been made lawful for us. The two dead things are fish and locusts, and the two bloods are the liver and the spleen.”

Sunan Ibn Majah 3314

Its grade needs care. As the Prophet’s ﷺ own words, its chain runs through ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam, whom the hadith critics judged weak, and Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ graded it weak. Al-Bayhaqi held that the same words are soundly reported as Ibn ʿUmar’s own statement, and that a Companion’s “made lawful for us” carries the force of a prophetic report. Al-Albani graded the hadith sahih. The ruling on locusts rests on the reports in Bukhari and Muslim either way.

The schools differ only on how a locust becomes food. The Hanafi, Shafi’i, and Hanbali schools require no slaughter at all. Imam Malik required that it die by a deliberate act, and any act that kills it counts. In Jaʿfari (Shia) fiqh, a locust is lawful when it is caught alive.

Is it halal to eat bugs? What the four schools say

The Quran describes the Prophet ﷺ as one who “makes good things lawful for them and forbids them what is foul” (Quran 7:157), and the whole disagreement turns on that word “foul”. Ibn Rushd (d. 1198) explains in Bidāyat al-Mujtahid that the scholars who define khabāʾith by what people find repulsive forbid insects, while those who confine the forbidden to what the texts name permit them. The Hanafis forbid every insect except the locust, and the Shafi’i and Hanbali schools forbid most of them, reasoning from the Arabs’ distaste for creeping things.

Imam Malik read the food verses through the list Allah gave His Prophet ﷺ:

قُل لَّآ أَجِدُ فِي مَآ أُوحِيَ إِلَيَّ مُحَرَّمًا عَلَىٰ طَاعِمٖ يَطۡعَمُهُۥٓ إِلَّآ أَن يَكُونَ مَيۡتَةً أَوۡ دَمٗا مَّسۡفُوحًا أَوۡ لَحۡمَ خِنزِيرٖ

“Say: I find nothing in what has been revealed to me forbidden to anyone who would eat it, except carrion, blood poured out, or the flesh of swine.”

Quran 6:145

The Maliki school permits small land creatures when they are killed with the intention of making them food, and whatever method kills them counts as their slaughter (dhakāh). Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta notes that the Maliki jurist Ahmad al-Dardir counts beetles, grasshoppers, ants, and worms among them, and Ibn Abī Laylā and al-Awzāʿī are reported to have shared Malik’s view.

Are crickets halal? Is cricket flour halal?

The stronger view is that farmed crickets, mealworms, and cricket flour are halal, following Imam Malik. The starting point in food is permission (al-aṣl fī al-ashyāʾ al-ibāḥa) until a text forbids, and no verse or sound hadith names the cricket.

Distaste is also a poor measure of the haram. When a roasted lizard (ḍabb) was set before the Prophet ﷺ, he drew back his hand, and Khālid ibn al-Walīd asked whether it was forbidden. He answered:

«لاَ، وَلَكِنْ لَمْ يَكُنْ بِأَرْضِ قَوْمِي فَأَجِدُنِي أَعَافُهُ»

“No. It is not found in the land of my people, so I find I have no appetite for it.”

Sahih al-Bukhari 5537

Khālid ate it while the Prophet ﷺ watched. The tastes of one people did not become a law for everyone, and insects are everyday food for millions in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Farmed insects also meet Malik’s condition: they are raised and killed deliberately for the table. They need no knife and no facing of the qibla; the rules for ordinary meat are covered in Can Muslims eat kosher or non-halal-certified meat?

The Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI) ruled in April 2000 that eating crickets is permissible as long as it causes no harm. Stricter authorities see it otherwise: in February 2023 Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health reaffirmed its ban on insect foods as falling short of its halal requirements. A Hanafi who keeps to the school’s ruling will leave crickets aside, and a Muslim who follows Malik here stands on a recognized position of the tradition. The Maliki breadth matches its breadth on seafood (Is shrimp halal?); on insect protein as a meat substitute, see Can Muslims be vegetarian or vegan?

Eating with gratitude

The locust that came upon Pharaoh’s people as a plague (7:133) was a meal the Companions shared with the Prophet ﷺ on the road. What Allah provides, He asks us to receive with thanks:

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ كُلُواْ مِن طَيِّبَٰتِ مَا رَزَقۡنَٰكُمۡ وَٱشۡكُرُواْ لِلَّهِ إِن كُنتُمۡ إِيَّاهُ تَعۡبُدُونَ

“You who believe, eat of the good things We have provided for you, and give thanks to Allah, if it is He whom you worship.”

Quran 2:172

May Allah make every meal we eat lawful and good, and every mouthful an occasion of thanks.