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It is mentioned the edicts of His Eminence that the fish must be taken out of the water alive when it was caught in order for it to be lawful to consume. If there is fish in a shop and it has scales, or the eggs of such a fish, how am I supposed to know whether it was caught dead or alive? Does this mean we have to know that this fish in particular in front of us was caught alive? Or can we make assumptions based on the possibility that it was caught alive?
The conventional and usual way of fishing and catching fish is according to the sharia-defined way, i.e. take the fish alive from the water. So the doubt whether it is caught alive or not is usually not reasonable and one can ignore it.
But if the doubt is based on evidence indicating that there is also a convention that people catch fish in another way in which the fish die in the water, this will make the consumption of such fish unlawful.
Is a fish that is hunted and killed by a spear or harpoon lawful to eat?
If the fish dies outside the water then it is permissible to consume it. If it dies inside the water then it is prohibited to consume.
For a fish to be lawful to consume, does a Muslim have to witness the person getting the fish out of the water alive?
It is sufficient in the permissibility of consuming the fish that it is removed from the water alive, even if the person who has done that is not a Muslim. It is not a condition that a Muslim sees that take place. It is sufficient if a trustworthy person informed of such, or if this is generally known to be the case from the surrounding circumstances.
In some countries, fish is mostly sold by non-Muslims. They kill the fish by throwing it on the ground (in front of buyers), clean it and cut it into pieces. Is it considered prohibited eat such fish because it is killed by a non-Muslim?
It is permissible to eat the fish when it dies outside the water, even by cutting it into pieces or separating it into parts or by cutting the side to clean it, whether a Muslim or a non-Muslim does this.
Today in non-Muslim countries, there are a lot of artificial fish cultivation places where the fish are pulled out alive (not dead). Even in the assembly line at a factory, the fish often alive where it is treated. I also worked on the ship in a non-Muslim country and saw that the sea fish are caught alive. Is this information sufficient to safely buy fish sold by non-Muslims, or is it necessary to know that the particular fish that I am buying was taken out of the water alive?
If the general trend in fishing is that the fish are removed out of the water alive and the business is based on not marketing fish found dead in the water, and the possibility of selling fish which has died in the water is because of error, one should not pay attention to such possibilities and the fish may be bought and eaten.