Fatwa ID: 04446

Answered by: Maulana Muqtaur Rahman

Question

Assalamu Alaikum, is Cuttlefish ink halal? 

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْم

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Answer:

Cuttlefish is a sea creature with eight arms and two tentacles that has a wide, flat shell inside its body and lives in waters near the coast and near the bottom of the sea.[1]

It is not permissible to consume cuttlefish (and/or its ink) because the only seafood that is halal according to the Hanafi school of Fiqh, is fish (Samak).[2]

Cuttlefish are not considered as Samak by the overwhelming scholars of the Hanafi Madhab. However, there are a group of scholars who consider it as a fish (Samak) and hence given the permissibility of its consumption.[3]

Therefore, it will be encouraged to abstain from such consumptions which have not only the possibility of being disliked/makrooh but rather the chance of being impermissible/haram.

Only Allah knows best

Written by Maulana Muqtaur Rahman

Checked and approved by Mufti MohammedTosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham