“I once asked abu al-Hassan, Musa ibn Ja‘far (a.s.), about the flesh of elephants. He (the Imam) said, ‘No, it is not lawful for food.’ I then asked, ‘Why is it so?’ He (the Imam) said, ‘It has deformities and Allah, most Majestic, most Glorious, has made what is metamorphosed unlawful for food as well as the flesh of what is deformed in its shape.”’