The Ruling on Eating the Turtle, the Crocodile and the Hedgehog

Question :

Is it permissible to eat the following creatures: The turtle, the hippopotamus, the crocodile and the hedge- hog, or is it forbidden to eat them?

Answer:

As for the hedgehog, it is permissible to eat, according to the generality of the Verse:
"Say (O Muhammad): "I find not in that which has been revealed to me anything forbidden to be eaten by one who wishes to eat it, unless it be Maitah (a dead animal) or blood poured forth (hy slaughtering or the like), or the flesh of swine (pork); for that surely, is impure or impious (unlawful) meat (of an animal) which is slaughtered as a sacrifice for others than Allah (or has been slaughtered for idols, or on which Allah's Name has not been mentioned while slaughtering)."

And, because the basic principle is permissibility, unless some evidence to make unlawful is confirmed.

As for the turtle, a number of the scholars have said that is permissible to eat it even if it was not slaughtered, based upon the generality of the Words of Allah, Most High:
"Lawful to you is (the pursuit of) water game and its use for food."

And, the saying of the Prophet:
"Its water is pure and its dead are permissible."

But it is better to slaughter it in order to avoid differing. As for the crocodile, it has been said that it may be eaten like fish according to the generality of the aforementioned Verse and Hadith, and it has been said that it may not be eaten because it is one of those predators possessing fangs, but the most authoritative view is the former.

And as for the hippopotamus, it may be eaten according to the generality of the aforementioned Verse and Hadith, due to the absence of any objection to it, and because the land horse is permissible according to evidence, therefore the water horse (hippopotamus) is more worthy to be deemed permissible.