What does the Quran tell about seafood such as mussels and shrimps and prawns?
‘‘For you and travellers the catch from the sea and its food are halal – permitted…’’ (Quran, al-Maida 5:96).
The verse is about all sea creatures. Catch from the sea means food that is to be hunted and food you can get from sea without hunting. According to this verse every kind of seafood is halal, in principle. Beside this, the Quran requests that all food should be clean (Tayyib: al-Baqara 2:168). From this point, for example, mussels are halal. However, if the place where they live is dirty it therefore turns it to unhealthy and unhygienic, then it’s not allowed to eat these mussels. Therefore it has to be examined whether the seafood is clean, healthy and hygienic or not.