Is it permissible to treat diseases with medicines made from pig intestines, such as insulin, for example?

The questioner : In a quick matter like this, which is current now. Is it possible to extract, I mean, now some medicines are extracted from pig intestines, like insulin, for example, from... the pig. Is it permissible?

The Shaykh : No, the answer is that it is not permissible. Yes.

The questioner : It has been established for Western doctors, as they said, that insulin taken from the pig is now the best type, better than that taken from cows. Now they all treat with it from the pig.

Another questioner : Diabetic patients, I mean, diabetic patients.

The Shaykh : Yes, this is the answer, as you heard, in brief. And it may benefit us to return to the beginning of the research when we said: that in Islam, the end does not justify the means. When we spoke about alcohol or spirit, that it is a disinfectant or purifier, and we said that Muslims must search and strive to obtain an alternative to this disinfectant purifier. If the doctors' statement in this treatment extracted from the pig is true, that does not justify us to take or treat with it except in very, very necessary cases. Because there are statements from some of the Salaf, and some of them narrated it as a hadith raised to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): But even if this was not authentically raised to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), the previous hadith we mentioned about alcohol, when they asked him, they said they treat with it in Yemen, he said: "It is a disease, not a cure." And now I mention a hadith and conclude the answer to this question, which is a text on the subject that it is not permissible to take such medicines, and it is the saying of some of the Companions: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) forbade medicine that is foul." And what is fouler than the pig? But I add a point and say: If those who extract this treatment from the pig are the disbelievers, I say: they are the disbelievers, because it is not permissible for there to be in Islamic lands anything called alcohol, let alone anything called spirit. So naturally, it is not permissible for there to be pigs raised in Islamic lands as Muslims raise sheep and camels and the like. Therefore, the Muslim doctor or the Muslim pharmacist is not allowed to extract this medicine from the pig at all, because this entails keeping pigs. And from the authentic hadiths is that 'Isa (peace be upon him), when he descends, as it is: "He will break the cross and kill the pig." So it is not for a Muslim to keep a pig for any benefit claimed. But I return and say: If the disbelievers are those who extract that treatment from the pig, and then this treatment, after undergoing chemical development processes, takes another chemical form or reality, then it is possible afterwards, and I cannot answer in this because this is a chemical matter, afterwards we can say the answer is the permissibility of treating with it, because the reality of the thing changed from forbidden to permissible, from impure to pure. This change is among the purifiers according to many scholars, and it is the truth by which we profess our faith in Allah. We all know that when alcohol ferments, eating or drinking this vinegar becomes lawful, unlike its original source from which it resulted, because a very natural reaction occurred in this drink, which is alcohol, until it moved due to these reactions to another reality, which is vinegar. So drinking this vinegar became permissible. And this is, of course, another issue: Is it permissible to convert alcohol into vinegar? You have known the answer of the Messenger to Abu Talhah. But if we know that there is vinegar, excuse me, vinegar that came to us from Europe, and it is made from what? From alcohol, then it is permissible for us to drink it, because the reality of this vinegar is not the reality of alcohol. And this is said in many matters, the clearest of which is what the jurists mention, that there is carrion which is forbidden and impure as well. And so he (peace be upon him) said: "Its purification is its tanning," or "Its tanning is its purification," or he said in another narration: , and in another wording: ; so this is proof that the carrion is impure, in addition to being forbidden. The jurists say this carrion turned into salt due to the developments in nature that were imposed on it from the sun, the winds, the rains, and the like. And lo, this carcass turned into a salt mine. Does this salt remain taking the ruling of the forbidden and impure carcass, or does it now take a new ruling?
The Shaykh: The answer: This is salt, not a carcass or carrion. Likewise, this extracted from the pig, if it remains chemically maintaining the same substance that was in the pig, this is not permissible to treat with, for what we mentioned of his (peace be upon him) prohibition of medicine with the foul.
Yes.