The preceding are the four principal categories of prohibited animal foods. As revealed in the verse of Surh al-Maidah (5:4 (3)), to these four are added five more categories which pertain to further classifications of the "dead animal," as follows:

5. The strangled: an animal which has been strangled, for example, by a rope around its neck, or suffocated, as for instance by putting its head into something which produces suffocation.

6. The beaten: an animal which has been beaten to death by a club or similar object.

7. The fallen: an animal which dies as a result of a fall from a high place, or by falling into a gully or ravine.

8. The gored: an animal which dies as a result of being gored by the horns of another animal.

9. That which has been (partly) eaten by wild beasts: an animal which has been partially devoured by wild animals and dies as a result.

After naming these five categories, Allah makes an exception of "that which you make lawful by slaughtering," meaning that if one comes upon such an animal while it is still alive, slaughtering renders it halal as food. The correct understanding of "still alive" is that some sign of life remains in it. 'Ali ibn Abu Talib said, "If you can slaughter the beaten, the fallen or the gored animal while it (still) moves its hoof or leg, you may eat it." Commented al-Dahak, "The people of the time of jahiliyyah used to eat them (dead animals); then Allah prohibited them in Islam, excepting what is slaughtered. If it is slaughtered while it (still) moves a leg, its tail, or an eye, it is halal (Some jurists have said that there must be life in it, the signs of which are the flow of blood and reflex movements)