And this is where, you know, then we come to this second issue of the animals which are there in the sea and this is
where we see we come to the non fish items and remember we are talking about
a Shia point of view because there's a big difference between the Shia fikh
and the Suni fikh on this issue of seafood. They allow everything which is
from the seafood in the Shia laws it is very restrictive. Anything which is not
considered to be part of the category of fish is Haraam and then coming to the
issue of fish in fish you know there are two types of fish. Scale fish and skin fish.
Skin fish again is out, when it comes to scale fish this is where you know that
is halal and in that category you will include shrimp and prawns. So at least
you're okay on that, there's no problems now when we talk about non fish animals
so, squid, lobster, clams and frogs these are all haraam, in Sunni fikh it is
permissible in Shia fikh it is not permissible at all.
When we talk about
the scale fish you know we include shrimp and prawns here. Actually there
was somebody who asked this question from the Imam that you know "How come
shrimps and prawns are allowed?" And Imam said "You can eat it. Don't you see it
moves in a shell or that shell is like a scale for it." And so we have a
specific including shrimp and prawns in the fish
category of the scale fish, therefore, that is permissible. Now what kind of you
know if you want a list of the fish one of the places I would mention for you
to go is a book called "A code of practice for Muslims in the West" at the
end you have names and pictures of about 28 fish which are halal.
Now that's not
the complete list you know probably in different parts of the world there are
different kinds of fish. As long as if you have any questions always you know
check on the internet, see whether it is part of the skin fish or scale fish, it
has scales or not and if you are able to find that you know that should be
permissible. Insh Allah we'll try it just as you know there is a listing of the
reliable and safe restaurants in GT area We'll also try to come up with a list of
the common fish which are permissible to us just to make it easier for people to
refer to it.