Since it is impermissible to eat clams, does that mean they are impure just like impermissible animal meat?

Question Summary

Since it is impermissible to eat clams, does that mean they are impure, just like impermissible animal meat?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Even though clams are impermissible to eat in the Hanafi school, they are not impure. [‘Ayni, al-Binaya Sharh al-Hidaya]

This is because clams do not have flowing blood in them, similar to fish. [‘Ayni, al-Binaya Sharh al-Hidaya citing al-Sarakhsi]

For this reason, the slaughtering of an animal according to the conditions of Islamic slaughter removes the flowing blood from the meat, thus leaving it pure; whereas, fish are not slaughtered because they do not contain flowing blood that needs removing.

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.