Ask Shaykh YQ #78 – The Ruling on Shrimp and Seafood

The next question we have brother as far as far or as far I hope I pronounced that correctly, brother as far as emails and says that

he has been told that eating shrimp and squid is not allowed. And so he is saying, Well, how come some Muslims eat it and some Muslims don't eat it

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poverty in Asia? No, he him first.

Lake Erie.

So this has a very nice, succulent, juicy question. I'm not going to joke about seafood because I see food and I like seafood. But I'm not gonna joke about that, even though I just did. When I go answer the question very simplistically, dear brother in Islam, the majority of med hubs allow all types of animals that come from the ocean. And this is something that the Maliki school, the Humber the school, and the Shafi school is very explicit on that these three methods they say, anything that lives in the ocean permanently, we're not talking about that, which is half ocean, half water, anything that is predominantly in the water, by ocean, we even rivers and lakes, any body of water,

any animal that its primary existence is in the water. According to these three main hubs, they are allowed unconditionally unless there is a poison in it, that will harm you, unless there's something in it that's going to physically harm you. Otherwise, every animal from the water is allowed. And the beauty of this is that by unanimous consensus, all the men have say that you do not need to slaughter such an animal, you do not need to, you know, find it alive and then cut it like we have to do to the hunted animals, no, you may find it, you know, dead, you may catch it and simply take it out of the water and its death is its proper procedure for slaughtering. And so simply by taking

the fish out of the water, whoever does so and that's why even if you're strict, there'll be huh. You may eat seafood wherever you go, because it doesn't matter who caught it how it was caught, or seafood is the default is that it is highlighted. Now, what is the evidence that these scholars say about this issue? What is the evidence that all seafood is halal? So they have a number of evidences primarily There's a famous Hadith and a famous or a verse of the Quran, sort of reverse 96 Allah says in the Quran or Hadith alaikum Seidel Buhari auto amo mozzarella como de se Yara, that the catch of the ocean, so you will notice the wording used. So you do by her, you throw a net into the

ocean, and you take that net out that is slightly so Allah is saying that the catch of the ocean, all of it is permitted for you. And also even for the one in Iran now. The one in Iran cannot hunt. You should know this, that when you do Hajj and Umrah and you weren't at home, you're not allowed to go hunt animals. However Allah allows the ocean traveler if you if you're in a home and you're in the ocean, right so you're going from India to Hajj let's say right, and you're in the ocean, you're allowed to hunt fish and you're allowed to eat anything that comes from the water. So Allah is here to look and say goodbye to Parramatta, Allah metallic, merci Yara, that all of this is permitted for

you. So the scholars say when Allah said slay doodle bow the catch of the ocean. This means any animal that lives in the water, it is highlighted for us. And so this includes shrimps and squids and eels and octopus and all types of animals that is no exceptions. Now, there's also a hadith available wherever the low tide reported in Abu Dawood, that somebody asked the Prophet sallallahu wasallam about the doing will do from ocean water. It's salty water, right can you do from ocean water? And our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Who? To who? To whom, who will monitor to who that its water is held to do from and it's dead. Anything that you find dead, it is permitted

for you to eat, okay? You don't even have to catch it alive. If you find the dead in the ocean. It is headed for you to eat. So who are the whole room? Who else Hello may tattoo who noticed he said the dead of the ocean. He did not say the fish of the ocean. He said anything caught in the ocean. And that is why we have explicit statements from many of the scholars. Even the great giant Sima modic, for example, said everything that lives in the ocean is

edible everything without exception that lives in the ocean is edible even if you find it floating dead you know on the top of the the water you may take it no problem because he said the Quran and Sunnah is very explicit on this point, and this is the inshallah tada the correct position, his position I follow. And it is the one that the evidence is support very clearly. Therefore, according to that position, anything from the ocean, and that includes seafood and shrimp and squid and octopus and anything that comes from the ocean lobsters, all of this would be completely permissible. Now, what is the dissenting opinion? The dissenting opinion is the Hanafi school, the

Hanafi school, and the Hanafi school is not explicit on this point. There are multiple positions even within the Hanafi school. And this is something that many modern Hannity's are not aware of, except if yours You know, the scholars will or are familiar with this, but within the Hanafi school, you have both of these opinions out there. And so, for example, Al cassani, in his famous book called by Sana, Sana and I spoke about this book in a previous lecture, and I mentioned the story of it's some writing now, which is a very interesting story, Alka Sahni. He says that the verse of the Quran that the catch of the ocean is Helen, and the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam that

it's dead is Helen. He said that it only applies to Samak or fish. And he has his evidences where he brings it, you know, they have their way of basically restricting. So al cassani argues that we should not look at this verse and this hadith as unconditional rather when our Prophet sallallahu Sallam is saying that it's dead is halon He means it's fish or headed and when Allah is saying that the catch of the ocean is halal, he means the fish is headed and everything besides fish, according to cassani would not be allowed and that is why he and others would say that shrimp and prawns and other by the way shrimps and prawns. Is there a difference between the two depends on which you ask

which which scientists you ask and some say prawns is a type of shrimp and some say prawns and shrimps are exactly the same. And technically speaking prawns is the category there's over 70 varieties of shrimp. Yes, I've done my research. And one of them is basically a type of one category where genus is called prawns. point is that of cassava and others would say only fish is halal and anything else that is not fish, including shrimps, including lobsters would be now is it haram No, no Hanafi scholars as it is haram Rather, they say either mcru to hurry me or my crew 10 Z, okay, because again, the Hanafi is have their their categories, they would say it's makuu, either strongly

or mildly. And if it's strongly mcru, they would say therefore it's a it's a bit of a sin to eat. If it's slightly mcru, there is no sin to eat it, but it is better to avoid it. So that's the difference between makuta Demian McGrew than z. And of the evidences that the Hanif is used as well is the verse in the Quran that you held on to your body while you had him while he will survive. That that which is filthy, is forbidden, The Hobbit is forbidden. And they say that shrimp and lobsters are hobbies are filthy, that we should not eat them. And the response is who gets to define what is hobbies and what is filthy, and what is not filthy. And the majority of other, you know,

civilizations and scholars and med hubs. They don't view these creatures to be filthy at all. So the notion goes, for example, you will find this and some of it was that Oh, the shrimp. It is like the insects or the versions of the ocean. And the response to this is that Well, I mean, who said it's that type of like I mean, who's going to make this comparison. In the end of the day when Allah has said the catch of the ocean is Helen. And when the Prophet system says anything that's coming from the ocean, even if his dead is high that then we should stick with that and there is no problem in and by the way, what is also proven in this is that

the the Hanafi school says that fish is permitted.

And by fish they don't mean the scientific term fish, because by unanimous consensus, a whale is permissible to eat We know this because the process itself as one, we know this because it's heightened sahadi that the Sahaba were on the shores of the ocean and the dead whale, you know, they found a dead whale and they cut it up and they ate it. And they brought some meat back to Medina and the profitsystem himself ate from that it was a whale. Now technically, a fish is not aware the whale is artificial where there's a mammal, and yet it is allowed to eat and the honeybees also say this. So therefore when when they say fish is allowed the Hanafi say this, the response comes who

gets to define a fish and that is why even many modern henna fees and even some early ones as well. They are saying that look. When the one the scholars say fish what they mean is an animal of the ocean. It's not the biological definition of a fish and the director of Egypt which is the

senior most Federal Council of Egypt and Egypt has a long tradition of Hanafi scholarship. The director of Egypt they gave a fatwa in which they said that shrimps should be considered a type of fish semuc they said, and they gave the fatwa that it should be allowed even according to the Hanafi madhhab and there are 100 fees in that council as well. However, you should know that the official fatwa of the narrow room of Deobandi India which is of course the main the resource of our Indian, Pakistani, Bengali brethren of the Durban the school, that the doubt room official fatwa is that eating shrimp is mcru 10 z, that it is something that should be avoided, but it is not sinful if you

eat so that's the doubter room, the obon fatwa, the Tao of Egypt, the Hanafi there say that no problem Samak is included in that as well. And you will find even many modern Hanafi scholars and I have many hanafy friends move these of the Hanafi madhhab and they have told me that, in their opinion, the madhhab does not prohibit makuta Halimi does not make makuta Halimi, and therefore, they give the fatwa publicly that according to the Hanafi method, you should be allowed, but you should be aware that there are dissenting voices, and it is up to you what you want to do. But if you ask me, it to me, it is crystal clear that there is no evidence to forbid, these, these items.

And in fact, the correlation is very clear. And it is the vast majority position of the oma and also even within the Hanafi school, we find many of them that have that have explicitly allowed this. And by the way, another point that demonstrates this is that some of our early Hanafi scholars, they explicitly mentioned the yield. And they said the yield is hella to eat for example, right. And the eel is not a fish in the sense that it is, you know, the way that it is a fish. Right. So, and you will find this even in

a doodle matar and

as soon as we and others that they explicitly mentioned that the fish called el mar Mahi Mahi, which is basically the the eel they said that this is allowed. Now, why would the eel be allowed and it is not a fish in the technical sense and the world is allowed and it's not efficient, the technical sense, and then other animals that are also the So anyway, that's, you know,

internal discussion amongst the Hanafi madhhab is not my place to tell them what to say what not to say. I will simply state you're asking me the position that I would advise you and I would say it's not a problem. If you eat this and it is the majority position of our scholars and if you choose to follow the position of the outer loop diva that is also fine and permissible and inshallah tada It is a matter that both positions are Allah xojo knows best and with that inshallah we come to the conclusion of today's q&a, and I will see you in shallow tada next week cinematic marketing to worry about again