I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about the hyena, and he said, "It is game, and a ram is to be offered as compensation if a person in the state of ihram hunts it."
سألت رسول الله ﷺ عن الضبع؟ فقال: هو صيد، ويجعل فيه كبش إذا صاده المحرم.
Abu Dawud (3801) and Ibn Majah (3085) narrated it, and Ibn Khuzayma (2645), Ibn Hibban (3964), and Hakim (1/452) graded it sahih, all of them from the hadith of Abdullah bin Ubayd bin Umayr, from Ibn Abu Ammar, from Jabir, and he related it. Hakim said, "Sahih according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs." Bayhaqi said, "The hadith of Ibn Abu Ammar is a good hadith that can serve as evidence."Daraqutni (5/183) narrated it via Ibn Jurayj, from Abdullah bin Ubayd bin Umayr, from Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Ammar, who said, "I asked Jabir bin Abdullah about the hyena." He said, "A ram is due for it." I said, "Is it obligatory?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Did you hear that yourself from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?" He said, "Yes." This is how he said it, "obligatory."Tirmidhi (851), Nasai (2836), Ibn Khuzayma (2645), and Ibn Hibban (3965) likewise narrated it, all of them via Ibn Jurayj with his chain, except that they did not mention, "a ram is due for it," but limited themselves to mentioning that it is game. Ibn Jurayj stated the chain explicitly in the versions of Ibn Khuzayma and Ibn Hibban.Tirmidhi said, "Hasan sahih. Ali bin Madini said, Yahya bin Saeed said, Jareer bin Hazim narrated this hadith and said, 'From Jabir, from Umar,' but the hadith of Ibn Jurayj is more sahih, and this is the view of Ahmad and Ishaq. The practice among some scholars regarding this hadith is that if one in the state of ihram kills a hyena, he owes the penalty." End quote.Hakim (1/452) said, Jareer bin Hazim summarized it, from Abdullah bin Umayr, from Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Ammar, from Jabir bin Abdullah, who said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ ruled that for a hyena killed by one in ihram, a Najdi ram is due, and he classified it as game."Jabir's hadith has other routes as well, "The Prophet ﷺ ruled that a ram is due for a hyena." Ibn Khuzayma (2648), Hakim, and Bayhaqi (5/183) all narrated it from the hadith of Ibrahim the Goldsmith, from Ataa, from Jabir bin Abdullah, as a raised hadith. Hakim said, "This is a sahih hadith, though the two of them did not include it. Ibrahim bin Maymun the Goldsmith was an ascetic scholar who attained martyrdom."This is how one should understand what Ibn Khuzayma (2647) and Bayhaqi both narrated from the hadith of Mansur bin Zazan, from Ataa, from Jabir, who said, "A ram was ruled for the hyena," meaning the Prophet ﷺ.Daraqutni (2541) narrated it, and from him Bayhaqi (5/183), via Ibn Jurayj, from Amr bin Abu Amr, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas, who said, the Prophet ﷺ said, "The hyena is game," and he set a ram as its penalty. There is disagreement over whether it is connected or disconnected.Shafii narrated it in Umm (2/192) from Saeed (Ibn Salim), from Ibn Jurayj, from Ikrima, the freed servant of Ibn Abbas, who said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ classified the hyena as game, and ruled that a ram is due for it." Shafii said, "This is a hadith whose like would not be established if it stood alone, but we mention it because Muslim bin Khalid informed us, from Ibn Jurayj, from Abdullah bin Ubayd bin Umayr, from Ibn Abu Ammar, who said, 'I asked Jabir about the hyena, is it game?'" and he related the hadith.Bayhaqi said, "He only said that because of its disconnection, then he reinforced it with the hadith of Ibn Abu Ammar, from Jabir, and the hadith of Ibn Abu Ammar is a good hadith that can serve as evidence, as mentioned before." He also said, "The hadith of Ikrima has been narrated as connected, via the route of Daraqutni as mentioned before."In summary, the hadith is sahih, and it establishes that a ram was set as the penalty for the hyena. Some narrators abridged it by simply classifying the hyena as game, while others detailed it by mentioning the ram.