Is It Permissible to Eat Walrus and Seal Meat?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
I’m planning on moving to a region where seals and walruses are popular to eat. What are the scholars’ views on consuming their meat, and can they be hunted instead of butchered?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.
I pray you are in good faith and health.
The Seal and Walrus are carnivorous mammals and not classified as fish, hence not permissible. [Rada al-Haq, Fatawa Darul ‘Ulum Zakariyya]
In the Hanafi school, all water creatures besides those falling in the fish category are impermissible. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar].
See this link for details: What Animals Are Halal and Haram to Eat in the Hanafi School?
Seals and walruses comprise a group of 33 aquatic mammal species with flippers known as pinnipeds, which is Latin for “feather-footed.” Biologists group pinnipeds into three families: true seals, or phocids; sea lions and fur seals, known as otariids; and walruses, or odobenids.
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I pray this helps with your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete the hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled in an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and ‘Aalimiyya sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan. He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for several years. He has taught hifz of the Quran, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to children and adults onsite and online extensively in the UK and Ireland. He taught at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences. He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His interest is a love of books and gardening.
