Hyderabad, Jan 7 (FE Online): A Hyderabad-based Islamic seminary has stoked a major controversy after it issued a fatwa saying that consumption of prawn is not permissible for Muslims. According to The Times of India, Jamia Nizamia’s decree refrained Muslims from eating prawns as they aren’t a type of fish. The fatwa was issued on January 1 by Mufti Mohammad Azeemuddin, the chief mufti of the 142-year-old Islamic deemed university.

The fatwa has deemed that prawns along with shrimps and crabs as strictly abominable, which hasn’t gone down too well with seafood lovers. In fact, many Muslim religious scholars have differed with Jamia’s ruling. According to Islamic law, there are three categories of food – halal (allowed), haram (prohibited) and makruh (abominable). As per the fatwa, prawn is an arthropod (to which insects also belong) and it does not fall under the category of fish. The chief mufti labelled prawn under the category makruh tahrim and advised Muslims against eating it. As per TOI, foods falling under makruh are sub-divided into makruh (abominable but can be eaten) and makruh tahrim (strictly abominable and thus should be avoided).

“Dar-ul-uloom, Deoband, which once considered prawn as makruh, has now declared it as halal. In Hanafi School, consumption of prawn is not advisable, but in Shafi School, it’s permitted. There is no sin even if a Hanafi adherent eats prawn. Though prawn is not a fish, people who eat prawn do not equate it with an insect. Thus it cannot be an abominable or despicable food,” Mufti Merajuddin Abrar, principal of Islamic school Anwarul Huda was quoted saying by The News Minute.

Jamia Nizamia is a distinguished Islamic educational institution revered in several countries. In 2016, the same seminary had issued a fatwa against Muslims chanting Bharat Mata Ki Jai. The controversy was over the fact that Muslims should not chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, as it symbolised a goddess, which Muslims cannot worship. Jamia Nizamia had said that the slogan was un-Islamic and pertained to worshipping a mother goddess which was against the tenets of Islam. “The mother of a human is human. No piece of land and no animal and no other object gives birth to humans…This is why calling the land of Bharat as mother is against reason. The religion (of Islam) also says the same thing,” the Times of India quoted the fatwa as saying.