Seafood (3)

We have looked at the base ruling and concluded that if there was no evidence to the contrary, seafood would be considered Halal. We now move onto general statements, which would supersede the base ruling if they can be confirmed. There are many general texts in this regard, suggesting the following:

1. Everything that is in the earth is halal
2. Everything that mankind eats is Halal
3. Absolute Halal nature of hunting from the sea and its food

Note that these are general rules, and would be the fall back position, if there are no specific exceptions found in texts (later blogs).


1. Everything in the earth is Halal

There are three Quranic verses that can be used substantiate this claim:

1. “It is He Who hath created for you all things that are on earth” (1)

The earth includes land and sea (not only land) and He has created everything so that we can benefit from it so it must be able for us to benefit from it by eating and drinking unless we are told otherwise through a specific text.

And some might consider that the verse means that we should be content with God’s creation, rather than saying that everything able to be eaten is Halal to eat. This is because being content with the creation does not imply that.

However, one could say that being content with what Allah has created, implies that man should benefit from it, through fulfilling his nutritional needs. For example, if someone said to another person: “I have made these things for you”, the apparent meaning is that he is happy with you to use it.


2. Verse of the Qur`an: “Oh mankind, eat from what is in the earth as something Halal, good” (2). The implication could be that it is allowed for mankind to eat what is in the earth because it is Halal and good; and fruits of the sea are considered amongst these.

Now there are two reasons for the usage of good (طيب): either to limit the Halal to only what is good, so something that is dirty is not considered Halal, or with the meaning of all that is in the earth is Halal and good.

“Tayyib” has many meanings, including Halal, Tahir, that in which there is no pain/harm…

However, we can consider this to not be applicable because it is talking about eating what is Halal and good – nothing about what is Haram and bad. Therefore, it does not help determine what actually is Haram and is therefore irrelevant.


3. Qur`anic verse: “They ask you about what is Halal for them. Say: Good provisions is what is Halal for you” (4). The “good provisions” – what man is able to benefit well from – is Halal and okay to eat. This is aided by what is in the book (5) attributed to Imam Rida (AS): “Know, may Allah have mercy on you that Allah, may He be blessed and exalted, did not make allowed any food or drink except that in which there is benefit and silah, and he did not make Haram anything other than that in which there is daral and talaff and fasaad. So every beneficial item for the body is halal and every harmful item is haram.”

From these discussions, we can conclude that this principle holds i.e. all food on the earth is Halal unless we get specific evidence to the contrary. In the next blog, we will look at the next general principle.

(1) Qur`an: 2:29
(2) Qur`an: 2:168
(3) Kanz al-Urfan in Fiqh al-Qur`an: Chapter 2, Page 390
(4) Qur`an: 5:4
(5) al-Fiqh al-Radawi (34:1)