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The carcass of a sea animal is lawful to consume; what is meant by its “carcass” is whatever of its creatures dies in the sea and can live only in the sea.
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The water that lifts ritual impurity and removes physical filth must itself be purifying, for the Prophet ﷺ based the permissibility of performing ablution with it on the fact that it is pure and purifying.
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It is permissible to sail the sea for purposes other than ḥajj, ʿumrah, or jihad.
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There is merit in the muftī adding information to the legal ruling beyond what was asked when he thinks the questioner may be unaware of it or may later face the issue—such as ruling on the carcass of sea animals for one who travels by sea. Ibn al-ʿArabī remarked: “Among the beauties of issuing fatwā is to include in the answer more than what was asked, so as to complete the benefit and convey knowledge of matters about which no question was raised. This is especially confirmed when the need for the ruling is evident, as it is here, and it is not considered meddlesome into what does not concern the muftī.”
Scholarly disagreement
Imam Abū Ḥanīfah held that all varieties of fish are lawful, but anything else—such as the otter (water dog), the sea pig, the sea-snake, and other creatures whose form resembles land animals—is forbidden.
The well-known position in the school of Imam Aḥmad is that every sea creature is permissible except the frog, the snake, and the crocodile: the frog and the snake are repulsive, and the crocodile possesses fangs with which it preys.
Imams Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī maintained that every sea creature is lawful without exception. They cited Allah’s words, “Lawful for you is the game of the sea” (Q 5:96), where “game” means the thing caught; and the Prophet’s ﷺ statement, “Two dead things have been made lawful for us: the locust and the fish” [Aḥmad 5690; Ibn Mājah 3218]. Al-Qāmūs defines ḥūt (fish) accordingly. They also relied on the present ḥadīth, “its carcass is lawful,” and this is the strongest opinion.