The Ruling of EatingAlgae: BetweenLawfulness and Unlawfulness

Nowadays Algae are used as a nutritional supplement in many parts of the world.The ruling on eating this aquatic plant is not mentioned in the legal statements as well as jurisprudential sources.Contemporary religious authorities (marājiʻ al-taqlīd) have not agreed on a single point of view on this issue. Some have issued fatāwā on its lawfulness and others on its unlawfulness.Two basic ideas play a key role in this disagreement: first, the idea of the harm of  eating algae, and second, the belief that it is impure.In order to criticize these two ideas, in the first step, based on accurate scientific findings, it becomes clear that although some species of algae may be harmful, this type of aquatic plant is not considered a harmful plant speciesand incidentally many benefits have listed for it.In the second step, in addition to challenging the idea that the impurity of something makes it forbidden and also criticizing the reliance on this idea for its ambiguity in its meaning and criterion, it is concluded that, apart from the lack of connection between impurity and unlawfulness, algaecannot be considered as an example of impurity and its unlawfulness cannot be believed in this way.