How do we reconcile the hadith: “Indeed, Allah has not made your healing in what is forbidden” with the medicines available in the present time?

Eid Abbasi : How do we reconcile the hadith: — that is how it is — with the medicines available in the present time, given that they contain a specific percentage of alcohol or narcotics? And what is the ruling on using some medicines that numb the body and mind for specific hours due to the person’s condition, where he may sometimes be anxious, tired, or not getting enough sleep? I ask you to clarify this, and may Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : First, I remind you that the hadith the questioner referred to is not authentic in terms of its chain of narration; that is, in the wording: However, there is in the authentic hadith in *Sahih Muslim* what suffices for this; and that is: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited the foul medicine.” So this authentic hadith takes the place of that weak hadith in presenting the problem that came in the questioner’s question. It is said: What is to be done, when many of the medicines people take today contain types of things that are foul in the Shari'ah, and specifically intoxicants? Some may not accept this expression, and I did it deliberately. It is more likely that the expression should be that they contain alcohol, but I said “intoxicants” because the word “alcohol” is equivalent to “intoxicants,” and the reverse is not correct; “intoxicants” are not equivalent to “alcohol.” Because it is known from the chemical aspect that alcohol is the essence of intoxicants, or in other words, alcohol is the intoxicating substance in intoxicants. So intoxicants contain many substances, such as the substance of sugar, and water. So the substance that makes this liquid intoxicating is alcohol. So medicines come to us containing this substance, alcohol. And there is no doubt that intoxicants are forbidden by the text of the Book and the Sunnah and the consensus of the Ummah, and they contain small parts of alcohol. So it is more fitting and more fitting that alcohol itself be forbidden, because it is the cause of the prohibition of intoxicants. So if there is in the medicines, or in some of them, something of this intoxicating alcohol, what is to be done, and Muslims are today afflicted by the use of such medicines? So what appears to me are two matters:
The first: If the medicine is entirely an intoxicating substance, then it is not permissible, unanimously, to treat oneself with it; due to the hadith of Muslim in his *Sahih* that a group said to the Messenger (peace be upon him): “We treat ourselves with intoxicants,” and he said: This is the first matter, that the medicine is itself intoxicating, so it is not permissible to treat oneself with it unanimously.
As for the other matter: That the alcohol is not the substance intended for treatment, or in other words: it is not that the compiler of this medicine intended to treat the disease with this intoxicating substance. Rather, there are other parts in this medicine which he intended to treat the patient with, that pharmacist who compounded this medicine. And he only included the substance of alcohol in these parts which, as we said, are intended for treatment for an incidental reason, not intended for treatment. What is it? As we hear, we are not specialists in pharmacy naturally, but it is said: that alcohol preserves this medicine from corruption or from decomposition or ... a type that corrupts dealing with it.

Eid Abbasi : Or it decomposes some substances, some substances decompose.

The Shaykh : It is decomposed in it for many reasons.
So at that time, the one who treats himself with this second type of medicine; that is: if the alcohol is not intended for its own sake; then we say at that time: that he has not treated himself with what Allah has forbidden him; because he did not actually intend to treat himself with what Allah has forbidden him, based on the hadith: “He prohibited the foul medicine.”
So this is the answer to this question, but before moving on to answering the other question, I want to remind you that this detail ... and that it is not permissible to treat oneself with it, but we do not mean and we do not want anyone to understand that it is permissible to consume alcohol “spirit” in order to decompose some substances or compound some medicines; this is not permissible for a Muslim who believes in Allah and His Messenger truly, and who knows that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded to avoid intoxicants; , avoiding intoxicants, and we have mentioned that alcohol is the mother of intoxicants and the foundation of intoxicants; this avoidance means that it should not be found in the lands of Islam in general, and in the Muslim’s own home in particular, anything called intoxicants, let alone that he needs to make it and distill and purify it into alcohol to take what he needs when he wants to compound a specific medicine, because in this case, he has contradicted the saying of his Lord: , so avoiding intoxicants, and more so alcohol, necessitates that there be no intoxicating substance in the lands of Islam, and consequently there will not be with us a medicine containing an intoxicating substance.
So someone may say, as they say when we mention that alcohol is not permissible to use in the way of sterilization, as doctors do in sterilizing wounds, purifying hands on the occasion of examining a patient or palpating him and the like, when we say: this is not permissible; because it contradicts His saying (the Exalted): ; they say: What do we do? With what do we sterilize the wounds? With what do we purify the places where, for example, an operation is to be performed and the like?
We say: Necessity is the mother of invention. When the Muslim is truly believing that his Islam, in its principles and branches, is true by a million-fold, and from this truth is that this alcohol is forbidden and that it must be avoided; at that time, he will think of inventing a sterilizer and purifier that is not intoxicating. And indeed, many of our pharmacist brothers name for us names I do not remember of the known sterilizers in the West, let alone in our country, which take the place of “spirit”; so this in reality indicates to us that Allah (Mighty and Majestic), as He said: in the authentic hadith ; so it is not permissible for us to turn this reality around and treat the disease in the way of Abu Nuwas:
“And treat me with that which is the disease”
So as long as Allah has informed, on the tongue of the Messenger, that there is no disease except that it has a medicine; so then, any disease must not have its medicine be the forbidden intoxicants by the text of the Book and the Sunnah. So it is necessary that we think, as they did regarding sterilization and purification, and they found some substances that suffice them from using “spirit.” Indeed, more than one doctor and pharmacist told me that some of the great Western doctors say that this “spirit” is not suitable for sterilization, but it has effects = -- and upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah - = until a doctor close to me told me that he heard one of the great European doctors in “Switzerland” say: “This spirit was not created except to be drunk as an intoxicant, not to treat diseases and wounds.” Today, they mean they openly state this truth; and therefore, Muslims are not permissible to be, in any way, followers of the disbelievers about whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: , so it is not permissible for us to take them as a model; because they do not forbid or permit, they do not care about this being pure, this being impure, this being forbidden, this being lawful. So the Muslim must always and forever follow the texts of the Book and the Shari'ah, even in his ordinary, health, and disease matters.
In summary: It is not permissible for there to be in the house of any Muslim, whatever Muslim he is, anything called alcohol, as long as this type of alcohol is intoxicating. And perhaps in the well-known hadith is a great lesson for every Muslim when he hears that Abu Talhah al-Ansari came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when the prohibition of intoxicants was revealed and said: “O Messenger of Allah, I have a skin of intoxicants for my orphans, shall I pickle it?” He said: .
Consider how the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not allow the intoxicants to remain in the orphans' house for a single moment, and ordered them to be poured out immediately, even though these skins had been purchased to grow the orphans' wealth at a time when they were lawful, and before their prohibition. Nevertheless, when the prohibition was revealed, he said: ; so how can the Messenger (peace be upon him) permit a Muslim to buy intoxicants for any purpose whatsoever? The best that can be said is: he buys the intoxicants, meaning the spirit, for what? For sterilization and purification. In Islam, the goal never justifies the means; therefore, remember this hadith that the Messenger (peace be upon him) ordered the pouring out of skins that had been bought with the orphans' money, and did not allow them to be turned into vinegar. If the intoxicants had turned into vinegar naturally, they would become lawful, because their essence... the intoxicating substance would have gone. But because this required work from the Muslim to treat the intoxicants in a way that would turn them into vinegar, the Messenger (peace be upon him) did not permit it for him, who was the guardian of the orphans, but rather ordered them to pour it out. So what excuse can we imagine that would permit a Muslim to make intoxicants, or to buy them, or to sell them? Therefore, it is no wonder that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: He mentioned first the one who drinks it, then added to him everyone who participates, or even everyone who assists this drinker in drinking: and the like.
This is all I have in answer to the previous question.