For a Muslim moving to Iceland the meat counter is often the first question: where can I find halal meat? But in a country that has lived from the sea for a thousand years, another question has a simpler answer. Fish is halal, however it was caught.
Lawful to you
The Qur’an permits what comes from the sea in so many words.
أُحِلَّ لَكُمۡ صَيۡدُ ٱلۡبَحۡرِ وَطَعَامُهُۥ مَتَٰعٗا لَّكُمۡ وَلِلسَّيَّارَةِۖ وَحُرِّمَ عَلَيۡكُمۡ صَيۡدُ ٱلۡبَرِّ مَا دُمۡتُمۡ حُرُمٗاۗ وَٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ ٱلَّذِيٓ إِلَيۡهِ تُحۡشَرُونَ
Lawful to you is game from the sea and its food as provision for you and the travelers, but forbidden to you is game from the land as long as you are in the state of ihram. And fear Allah to whom you will be gathered
The verse comes in a passage about the pilgrimage, where hunting on land is forbidden while in iḥrām. Fishing at sea is not. And another verse counts the sea among God’s gifts:
وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِي سَخَّرَ ٱلۡبَحۡرَ لِتَأۡكُلُواْ مِنۡهُ لَحۡمٗا طَرِيّٗا وَتَسۡتَخۡرِجُواْ مِنۡهُ حِلۡيَةٗ تَلۡبَسُونَهَاۖ وَتَرَى ٱلۡفُلۡكَ مَوَاخِرَ فِيهِ وَلِتَبۡتَغُواْ مِن فَضۡلِهِۦ وَلَعَلَّكُمۡ تَشۡكُرُونَ
And it is He who subjected the sea for you to eat from it tender meat and to extract from it ornaments which you wear. And you see the ships plowing through it, and [He subjected it] that you may seek of His bounty; and perhaps you will be grateful
“Its water is pure”
A sailor’s question, and an answer that became a rule.
A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: We go to sea and take only a little water with us. If we use it for ablution we go thirsty. May we make ablution with sea water? The answer was longer than the question:
هُوَ الطَّهُورُ مَاؤُهُ الْحِلُّ مَيْتَتُهُ
“Its water is purifying, and what dies in it is lawful.”
He answered what was asked, about the water, and added what the sailor also needed to know: the food. Fish do not need to be slaughtered in God’s name like land animals. They are lawful as they come out of the sea.
The whale on the shore
The Companions were once on an expedition along the Red Sea coast and had run out of food. The sea washed ashore a huge dead fish, which they called al-ʿAnbar, and they lived on it for half a month. When they returned to Madinah they told the Prophet ﷺ, and he replied:
كُلُوا رِزْقًا أَخْرَجَهُ اللَّهُ، أَطْعِمُونَا إِنْ كَانَ مَعَكُمْ
“Eat, it is provision God brought out for you. Feed us some if you have any left.”
And he ate from it himself. In another hadith he says:
أُحِلَّتْ لَنَا مَيْتَتَانِ وَدَمَانِ فَأَمَّا الْمَيْتَتَانِ فَالْحُوتُ وَالْجَرَادُ
“Two kinds of dead meat and two kinds of blood have been made lawful for us. The two kinds of dead meat are fish and locusts …”
Where the schools differ
All the schools agree on fish. The difference is over other seafood. The Shafiʿi, Maliki and Hanbali schools permit almost everything that lives only in the sea, including prawns, lobster, crab and shellfish, with some exceptions each school defines. The Hanafi school permits only what counts as fish, and Hanafi scholars differ over prawns. Someone who follows the Hanafi school will ask about the lobster, but no one needs to ask about the cod.
And one thing always needs checking: what comes with the fish. Fish fried in the same fat as bacon, or cooked in wine, is no longer simple. In most restaurants it is enough to ask.
In Iceland
Cod, haddock, salmon, Arctic char, herring and prawns: Icelandic food comes largely from the sea. For Muslims in Iceland that is a blessing. In a country where halal meat is not sold everywhere, fresh fish is in every shop, and the same rule applies to it as to the sailor who asked fourteen centuries ago.