Lobsters and crabs, halal or haram due to boiling alive?

Question

I just read a question that asks if eel is halal and it reminded me of something I always wondered about. Lobsters and crabs are boiled alive when cooked. That means it's haram to eat them right? I know its haram to eat wild animals, either from land or sea. However, I don't know if lobsters and crabs can be considered "wild" since eating them is so common. However, does the fact that the process of cooking them is so cruel make eating them haram?

I have seen a few people ask similar questions to this on this site and the main answers I saw claimed that anything from the sea is halal (really? even sharks and whales?), which would make eating lobsters and crabs halal. However, fish die soon after they leave the water, and there is a process that one must go through when slaughtering an animal for food, it must be as quick as possible to prevent needless pain. My issue lies with the fact that the lobsters and crabs will be boiled alive.

If eating them is halal, is there another way of cooking them or is it that they just don't feel the pain, and if they don't feel the pain how do you know?

Answer 1

Different schools said differently in this regard.

In Hanafi madthab, it is haram to eat shellfish (lobster, crab, shrimp, oyster, etc.)
In Shafi'i and Hanbali, everything from the sea is halal.
In Maliki, everything but the eel is halal.

But Eating sea food is Halal, regardless of which Madhab you follow, as Allah says:

Lawful to you is game from the sea and its food as provision for you and the travelers, but forbidden to you is game from the land as long as you are in the state of ihram. And fear Allah to whom you will be gathered. [5:96 :: Surat Al-Mā'idah (The Table Spread) - سورة المائدة ]

In more clear words: Water-game and Sea-food is made lawful to you.

Therefore Eating crabs or lobsters are Halal

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About the slaughter of animals:

Allah the most high says:

Say, "I do not find within that which was revealed to me [anything] forbidden to one who would eat it unless it be a dead animal or blood spilled out or the flesh of swine - for indeed, it is impure - or it be [that slaughtered in] disobedience, dedicated to other than Allah. But whoever is forced [by necessity], neither desiring [it] nor transgressing [its limit], then indeed, your Lord is Forgiving and Merciful." [6:145 :: Surat Al-'An`ām (The Cattle) - سورة الأنعام ]

The main counsel of Islam in the slaughter of animals for food is to do it in the least painful manner.. And also disliked eating alive. _{[Fatwa on Stunning Animals]}

It is forbidden to eat any kind of dead meat, whether it died by drowning, strangulation, electric shock, falling from a high place, fighting with another animal in the herd or was killed by a wild animal – unless one is able to slaughter it properly before it dies. _{[Disallowed Matters- Book by Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid]}

It is best to avoid eating any animal that was boiled, burned or drowned alive.

See The Fiqh of Halal and Haram Animals for more details