All the sea animals are edible and they are permitted in Islam. There is no prohibition as far as the sea animals are concerned. Only the problem is concerning those animals which according to some are sea animals and according to some others are land animals, like frog. So, apart from this, that it is half sea and half land animal, there is no prohibition by name of frog or by class either. I mean the class to which the frog belongs, if it is not a sea animal, even that class is not prohibited. It doesn’t fall into the category of beast either, you know. So, in those things where prohibition has not been made definitely, the thing should be left to one’s own nature and liking and one’s best judgment.
And one general principle should be kept in mind that the Holy Quran does not only permit you to eat what is halal, that is permitted, that is not prohibited, but also it adds one other epithet to this halal, that is halal and tayyaba. Tayyaba is a beautiful word which covers a lot of ground all around halal. Halal is something which is permitted, but tayyab speaks of its condition. It should not only be permissible, but also it should be of the best quality, refined quality, it should be fresh, it should not be bad smelling and all other concomitants which go with edible things, they should be of the best quality. That is what is required of a mu’min, of a true believer.
Now this subject which we have opened up offers a very interesting study of comparison between Islamic teachings and other religious teachings. There are prohibitions and permissions in other religions regarding food, but none has mentioned this quality of tayyab as a condition which is attached permanently to wherever the word halal is found, this tayyab is also mentioned. So that shows the beauty of Islam. It takes the mankind a step further towards refinement. It says that just don’t be concerned only with what is permissible and what is not permissible. Also, among the permissible things, eat them in the best of manners and if they fall short of a standard which Allah expects of a believer, then even if they are permissible, don’t touch them.
So that is an added beauty of Islamic teachings. Also, it speaks of personal likes and dislikes. Tayyab is a very wide word which may mean different things according to different people. A thing could be extremely tayyab or excellent in the eyes of Chinese. On the other hand, the same thing would be horrible in the sight of some other people and vice versa. Things which we eat in India or in Pakistan, we don’t have a very large number of things which we eat, I mean a small number as compared to other people’s list of edible things, but yet there are some among them which horrify others. Once I mentioned something, it’s eaten here in Pakistan, a Japanese was horrified. While his list of edible things is much, much larger and broader than our list and there are many things on that list which we cannot think of eating at all.
For instance, the Chinese eat rats so casually and you know, so matter of course way, in a matter of course way, that they can’t conceive of anybody reacting to it violently. Even they eat them live. Somebody mentioned it to me once in Hong Kong. There was a huge granary storage in which these boys were working, an Ahmadi labourer and a Chinese labourer. So he said, I saw it with my own eyes, a fattened rat leaped out of some crevice and immediately this Chinese friend pounced upon it, took two pieces of bread from his pocket and made a sandwich and started eating, like that.
So, now the question is whether that particular thing is halal or not halal. To those people who belong to certain people where these things are not eaten, they are not tayyab. And they should not be eaten then because tayyab also is a condition attached to the edible list. And there are various standards of people, some are more refined, some are less refined, so their tayyab would change according to their own standard. So this is in general the teaching of Islam about what you should eat and how you should eat.
