And Allah Most High has said:

“Lawful to you is game from the sea and its food as provision for you and for travelers.”
[Surah al-Mā’idah: 96]

The [early generations] (1) of the Muslim community and its leading scholars unanimously agreed that all fish are lawful. Ali, along with the other Companions, regarded these kinds as lawful. How, then, can they say that Allah made them impure?! But the Rāfidah are ignorant: they prohibit what Allah has made lawful on the strength of fabricated stories such as this.

Fifth: It may be said that speaking is not ordinarily within a fish’s power; rather, it is something that departs from the ordinary course of nature. Thus, if this actually happened, it was Allah Most High who caused some of them to speak and kept others silent. What fault, then, did those whom Allah kept silent commit, such that they should be declared impure?! Whoever blames a speechless animal because Allah did not cause it to speak treats it unjustly.

If someone says, “Rather, Allah enabled them to speak, but they refused to do so (2),” the answer is: Had Allah enabled them to do so, it would only have been as a miraculous honor for Ali—may Allah be pleased with him. Such an honor would be realized only by their speaking to greet him, not merely by their having the ability to do so while refusing. If they did not greet him, enabling them while they refused would bring him no miraculous honor. Rather, it would entail prohibiting wholesome foods for people, for their flesh is wholesome (3), and that is a form of punishment.

As Allah Most High has said:

“For wrongdoing on the part of the Jews, We made unlawful for them good foods which had been lawful to them, and for their hindering many from the way of Allah.”
[Surah al-Nisā’: 160]