IN THE NAME OF
ALLAAH THE MOST KIND THE MOST MERCIFUL
-------------------------------------------------------
A Article Based On These
Products [listed below] And
The Issue Of Cocacola
Containing Alcohol.
Coca Cola + Chemical
preservatives, i.e. all E’ numbers
+ Wine
Vinegar + Gelatine and
products containing it [are they haram to
have?]
From Abu Muntasir,
Assalaam 'alaikum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuhu.
Innal hamdalillaah was-salaat was-salaam 'alaa rasoolillaah.
We need to be very careful when pronouncing anything to be forbidden by Allah.
In addition we should also fear Allah in creating difficulties for Muslims or
subjecting them to the inconveniences of unnecessary restrictions.
Recently some query and discussion has been taking place with regards to Pepsi
and possibly Coca Cola containing a small amount of alcohol and how we should
view such beverages. Shaikh Albani’s view is that change purifies substances
that had originally been deemed prohibited.
A brother Tamim kindly pointed out with due care and caution that Shaikh Albani
apparently also hold it permissible to eat e.g., chocolate bars containing
intoxicating substances in small quantities. This is because even if one were
to eat say a 100 such chocolate bars, one would not become intoxicated. He drew
our attention to the shaikh mentioning the hadith of when a rat fell in some
ghee (clarified butter). They simply removed the rat and threw out the ghee
that they saw had been contaminated around where the rat had fallen. The rest
of the ghee was still considered pure. The shaikh’s analogy was with regards to
the fact that some remnants of the rat falling in the container of ghee were
still in there, but it was still considered pure.
He also clarified the other hadith, "that if something is considered
impermissible then small quantities are also impermissible" where the
shaikh agreed that if the small quantity is enough, where you take it numerous
times it will have the same effect as the original dose, then it is not
permissible. However, in the case of alcohol in the chocolate which is so
minute, that even if one eats a 100 bars one will not become drunk, then this
ruling doesn’t apply here...thus harmonizing the aforementioned situation and
the latter hadith.
Subsequently Ali Al-Timimi confirmed that Ibn Baz has a similar Fatwa which can
be found in a booklet distributed by the Saudi Embassy entitled Fatawa
al-Mughtarib.
He said the rule is does consumption lead to drunkenness even if large
quantities are drunk. Since it is apparent that drinking large amount of Pepsi
does not lead to intoxication it is therefore not haram to consume.
Here are some notes from Dr. S. Darsh (may Allah have mercy on him) where he
discusses the issue of food additives. He wrote the following in 1992!
ADDITIVES
Additives are chemical elements. They are no more considered as the original
material from which they are derived, the fiqh rule is: any change in the
substance entails change in the rule’. This is the answer I give to those
who inquire about what foods today are Halal. Many try to argue that any
additive which contains an element of Haram makes a food itself Haram, based on
the hadith, "any flesh grows out of suht (unlawful food) will not
enter Paradise’. But there are two aspects to this: first, suht means
unlawful. Ibn Mas’oud explained this word which is recorded in chapter 5 verse
42 of Tafseer Ibn Katheer as meaning ‘one who takes bribes’. Thus, Ibn
Katheer first explained suht generally as anything unlawful or derived from
unlawful means. Second, this hadith is weak, (see Kashful Khafa vol.2 page
176).
The Hanafi Position
Going to the substance of the letter. The
purity of an additive is based upon the principle described (the change of the
nature of the substance) . In vol. 1, page 314, Hashiya ibn Abedin, Radd al
Muhtar ala ad-durr al Mukhtar, a standard Hanafi fiqh text book, written by
Muhammad Ala’a al Deen Al Hasafki, there are more than thirty purifying things
mentioned by Al Hasafki (rendered into a poetry form to make it easy to
memorize) . In one line he said, ‘and change of substance" .
Ibn Abedin said, "the swine which drowns in a salt lake, after
decomposition, becomes salt and thus halal". Ibn Abedin based his
comments on the saying of Al Hasafki regarding the manufacturing of vinegar
made from wine. "According to the principle of change of substance,
vinegar made of wine is lawful". He then went on to say, "Vinegar
made by mixing wine with water, according to the correct opinion, is pure"
One page 315, Al Hasafki has said that "soap made from impure oil
is pure and can be used. Ibn Abedin, commenting on this said, "This
is an example of change of substance". he then went on to quote a
statement issued by Al Mugtaba which reinforced Al Hasafki’s view that pure
soap could be derived from oil that was not pure. A similar position was
reflected by Muhammad ibn Al Hasan, the second great pupil of Abu Hanifa.
According to Ibn Abedin, the fat of a dead animal, used to make soap is subject
to the same conditions. The expression used was impure (najas) as opposed to
mutanajjis which means to make impure. However, oil is usually used in
preference to other fatty substances. However, reading Al Munyah, I found an
explanation which supports the first view, he states, "If a man or dog
falls into the container in which soap is being made, it remains pure".
Ibn Abedin goes on to say, "Know that a compound is deemed pure,
according to Muhammad ibn Al Hasan, from the rule which allows for change of
substance". In addition, he adds that any product or substance, not
only soap, can also be judged pure on account of its widespread use.
One page 326, on the subject of change of substance, as if to reinforce the
point, al Hasafki says that dust and smoke particles rising from burnt human or
animal excrement cannot be judged impure. If it were, he says, then we would be
forbidden to eat bread baked on fires in which such impurities were used as
fuel. The same can be said for salt filtered from animal-contaminated lakes.
This, concludes Ibn Abedin, is how any product or substance is judged to be
pure or otherwise. Muhammad Al Dakhira, Al Muhit and Abu Hanifa are all of the
same opinion. Other shaikhs choose to follow this ruling as well. This is the
chosen rule for the Shar’iah ruled that these things were impure in their
nature. The reality of a thing changes with the change of some of its implied
parts, not to mention all of them. Salt is totally different from meat and
bones. If they become salt, they are salt. What is similar to that in the
Shar’iah is the life-germ (sperm), the beginning of human life. From a Hanafi
point of view it is impure, then it is turned into a clot, it is still impure,
then it becomes a lump of flesh and at this point it becomes pure.
The same goes for wine juice. it is pure, when it becomes wine it becomes
impure, but when it turns to vinegar, it becomes pure. This is as far as the
Hanafi school is concerned.
The
Hanbali position
The Hanbali school’s attitude is quite
different. In al Mughni by Ibn Qudamah, a Hanbali standard book, in the book of
purity, section on utensils, he writes: ‘No impure thing could turn into pure
as a result of the change in its substance except wine when it changes by
itself into vinegar’.
But it could be deduced that all impure things become pure as a result of the
change of its nature, analogous to the change of wine to vinegar is the skin of
a dead animal when tanned and the domestic, edible birds and animal which eat
excretion.
The
Literalist position
According to the Literalist School: Ibn Hazm,
the exponent of the Literalist school wrote in his manual (Al Muhalla) volume
1, page 166, problem no. 132: ‘If the excretion of the animal is burnt down
or changed and becomes ashes or dust, all that becomes pure and can be used for
tayammum (earth purification) . The proof of that is the fact that rules are in
accordance with what Allah Most High, has ruled regarding the objects in what
the object is named. If the name of the object is changed or dropped, the
previous rule is dropped as well. It is something from that which Allah has
named’. As such, excretion is different from dust, as it is different from
ashes. The same thing with wine which is different from vinegar and human being
is different from the blood from which he is created. The dead thing is
different from dust or ashes.
In problem 136, page 178, he goes on to say: ‘If the quality of the substance
of naturally impure object changes the name which was given to it so that it is
no more applicable to it and it is given a new name which is given to a pure
object, so it is no more an impure thing. It becomes a new object, with a new rule.
The same thing is true of a pure thing changing into impure thing such as juice
becoming wine or the wine becoming vinegar. The pork flesh eaten by a chicken
and becoming a chicken flesh. It is halal. The water becoming wine or the food
turning into excretion, the excretion and the wine used as fertilizer or
becoming a fruit and so many other things.
Al Qur’an
The basis of all these is the Qur’anic verse:
‘And
surely there is a lesson for you in the cattle we give you to drink of what is
in their bellies from between the faeces and blood, pure milk, wholesome to
those who drink it’ (16-66)
Allah Most High,
considers it one of the favours He bestowed upon people that a healthy pure
animal product comes out of these impure things.
Conclusion
In the light of what is mentioned above, and the widespread use of so many
things which are becoming essential needs for Muslim communities living in a
non-Islamic environment, any substance which chemically changed from its
original character becomes a new product and acceptable to use. This includes:
1. Chemical preservatives, i.e. all E’ numbers
2. Soap made from fat, animal products or oil, deemed impure in its original
form
3. Toothpaste
4. Wine Vinegar
5. Gelatin and products containing it
To obtain gelatin from animal protein, it has to undergo a lengthy chemical
process described in the Oxford dictionary of science as follows:
‘A colourless or pale yellow, water-soluble protein obtained by boiling
collagen with water and evaporating the solution. It melts when water is added
and dissolves in hot water to form a solution that sets to a gel on cooling’ (page
290)
This description shows the great change it undertakes and the new name it
takes. On considering part of the Qur’anic verse of chapter 16 I quoted
earlier, it is clear this process is like or similar to the process of
obtaining milk out of the dirt inside the belly of the animal which Allah
described as wholesome, palatable and pure.
In fact, most of the new products which are containing such chemical elements
are obtained by chemical processes. These processes are not a mere mixing up of
what is Haram with what is Halal. it is a real change. Protein is different
from gelatin. As such it is pure and can be used in products which are allowed.
Vinegar, milk and salt are all examples of products extracted from impure
substances.
In fact the Hanafi view in this connection is much more advanced and liberal,
particularly when we study the purifying aspects mentioned by Ad-Durr Al
Mukhtar, which, by the way, includes boiling, tanning, slaughtering and
dividing.
To hasten to say Haram without considering the process of change, to look into
the original without considering the new product shows the inability to
understand the world of science and chemistry advanced as it is nowadays and
ignoring the needs of the Muslim communities in their new environment.
May Allah guide us on the right way.
We need to be very careful
when pronouncing anything to be forbidden by Allah. In addition we should also
fear Allah in creating difficulties for Muslims or subjecting them to the
inconveniences of unnecessary restrictions.