Someone told me that our prophet allalahu alaihi wa sallam ate all creature in the sea inluding crustacean .

Question ID: 
1095
ali*** asks:

Question

assalamualikum. someone told me that our prophet allalahu alaihi wa sallam ate all creature in the sea inluding crustacean . i said to him that in the maezhab of hanafee only fish is halaal in the ocean .he a asked a molana if he can eat crustacean,octopus,crab,etc... . the molana replied that only pork is haraam is mentioned in the quraan and nowhere is mentioned that crustacean,octopus,crab,etc... is makrouh or makrouh e tehrimi so you can eat all creatures in the sea.

Answer

Wa alaikumus salaam. Quraan Kareem prohibits the consumption of "maitah": (dead) carcass. In a hadith, Nabi (Sallallaahu alaihi wasalaam) is reported to have said that 'two maitah are halal: Locus and Fish'. On the other hand, in another hadith Nabi (Sallallaahu alaihi wasallam) said that the maitah of the sea is halal. When we analyse the second hadith in the light of the first one, we can conclude that all fish from the sea is halal. The principle is that everything in the sea which can be considered as fish can be consumed. However, octopus, crabs, crustaceans etc. are not considered as fish according to the Hanafi Mazhab therefore they cannot be consumed. As regard prawns only, there are differences of opinion among Hanafi Ulama. Some consider it halal on the basis that it is a fish according to them, and they do not say this that it is halal because of the principle that everything which is found in the sea is halal (which is not a Hanafi principle) and some don't consider it fish that's why it is not halal according to them.