Permissibility Of Eating Sea Food
As far as Dietary prohibitions are concerned, it works on the principle of Taiyyabaat and Khabaais . And In another place, Quran has cleared Taiyyabaat with word ‘ Bahimatul-Anam ’, meaning the cattle specie, which makes the differentiation more clear i.e. it is the ‘ Beastly (Darindagi) ‘ and ‘ Non-Beastly ‘ nature which are the most distinguishing factors. Then there are animals in-between this category which could be predatory but not actually beastly in nature , which could put them in the grey area. There is also a category which is neither predatory nor beastly in nature like horse, donkey etc. but also falls in the same grey area. This is the Mushtabihaat category . Shark is a ‘ Beastly (Darinda) ‘ animal, therefore, to be considered as Prohibited while Whale on the other hand is not beastly in the way it eats, therefore it is to be considered Halal. The same ruling would apply to other sea animals based on their nature. Please see for further details : Discussion 47843 • Reply 47886