All sea food lawful.
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Answer:
All sea food lawful
In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His
help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide,
and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear
witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear
witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His
Messengers.
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 16 Surah Nahl verse 14:
It is He (Allah) Who
has subjected the sea to your service so
that you may get fresh flesh from it to eat and bring out of it
articles of ornaments, which you wear.
Sunan of Abu-Dawood Hadith 83 Narrated by Abu Hurayrah
A man asked the Messenger of Allah (saws): ‘O
Messenger of Allah (saws), we travel on the sea and take a small quantity of
water with us. If we use this for ablution, we would suffer from thirst. Can we
perform ablution with sea water?’ The Messenger of Allah (saws) replied: ‘Its
water is pure and (even) what dies in it is lawful food.’
Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 5.648 Narrated by Jabir
We set out in the army of Al-Khabt and Abu
Ubaida was the commander of the troops. We were struck with severe hunger and the
sea threw out a dead fish the like of which we had never seen, and it
was called Al-'Anbar. We ate of it for
half a month. Abu Ubaida took (and fixed) one of its bones and a rider passed
underneath it (without touching it). (Jabir added:) Abu 'Ubaida said (to us),
"Eat (of that fish)." When we
arrived at
Whenever one wishes to determine whether an animal is
permissible or impermissible for the believers to consume, the principle law is
look in the list of what has been declared haraam by Allah and His Messenger
(saws); and if one does not find the name or type of the animal in the haraam
list, its flesh would be presumed halaal for the believers.
In light of the above clear guidance of Allah and His Messenger
(saws), the absolute majority of the scholars including the eminent scholars of
Jurisprudence, Imam Shafei, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and Imam Malik are all of
the opinion that the flesh of every animal, without exception, that
predominantly lives in the sea would be absolutely ‘halaal’ for the believers
to consume. Crabs, lobsters, calamari or squid, prawns, etc. are creature of
the sea, thus its flesh would be deemed absolutely ‘halaal’ and lawful for the
believers as food.
The
Hanafi school of thought on the other hand have taken the term ‘Its water is pure and (even)
what dies in it is lawful food’ to mean only the fish and exclude all other
sea-creatures, but that opinion is not accepted by the other three major
schools of thought. We wish to clarify
here that even the Hanafi school of thought does not declare or classify the
other sea-creatures other than fish to be ‘haraam’ or unlawful….but instead
have classified them as ‘makrooh’ or disliked and guided that it would be
safest if the believers abstained from consuming it. And Allah Alone Knows Best.
Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only
due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me
alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is
the Only Source of Strength.
Your brother and
well wisher in Islam,
Burhan
Wister