Is consuming fish meat included in an oath to abstain from eating the meat of livestock, birds, or game?
General Chapter
Al-Mughni
Book of Expiations
Primary text
Consuming meat from livestock, game, or birds breaks the oath, according to the consensus of scholars in most cities. The dominant view is that consuming fish meat also breaks the oath, aligning with Qatadah, Al-Thawri, Malik, and Abu Yusuf, because the term 'meat' applies to it as it originates from an animal body suitable for eating, similar to bird meat. Quranic evidence supports this by mentioning the sea provisioned for eating 'tender meat' (Quran 14:14 and 35:12).
Supporting text
Ibn Abi Musa in Al-Irshad, Abu Hanifa, Al-Shafi'i, and Abu Thawr rule that fish meat does not break the oath unless specifically intended, arguing the unqualified term 'meat' does not inherently refer to fish. They assert one can truthfully deny eating meat if only fish was consumed, analogous to swearing not to sit under a roof and then sitting under the open sky, even though the sky is metaphorically called a protective roof (Quran 21:32).