Some materials, such as biscuits or soap or the like, contain animal fats in their ingredients, such as from cows or pigs; what is the ruling on them?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Regarding... biscuits, biscuits, various biscuits.
The Shaykh : Biscuits.
The questioner : ... Cocoa is the same. On the soap, it is written that it contains animal fat. They say that this animal fat is from a dead cow from outside Kuwait... from Pakistan, or from a pig. I mean, this proportion in it is small. There are people who forbid it and do not eat it... if you please, clarify this for us?
The Shaykh : In reality, a jurist and another man, a chemist, must participate in answering this; because the fact that the fat present in the biscuits or cocoa or soap is a small amount does not change the ruling that it is not permissible to use it as long as it contains this impure thing. However, the matter that must be researched and for which the opinion of a Muslim chemist must be sought is: Is this fat, which is composed of the fat of a slaughtered cow or the fat of a pig, when it mixes with this mixture—and let us take soap as an example—does this fat remain fat, or does it undergo a chemical development due to this mixing, so that it exits its previous reality, which is being pig fat or the fat of a slaughtered animal; does it exit from this reality to another reality, and thus take on another ruling? Without a doubt, I, like others, cannot answer this; because it is not my specialty, I am not a chemist. But based on the answer that will be obtained or emerge from that chemist, we will say: Either he says: the fat remained as it was; in that case, it is said: it is not permissible... because it is impure because it is forbidden. And if he said: No, due to the chemical development, its reality changed and it became another reality, then we look at this other reality: Is it forbidden in the Shari'ah?
Another questioner: Peace be upon you.
The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
Or is it impure, or is it not forbidden and not impure; in that case, its use becomes permissible. And this development has a ruling in Islam, of course; because it is known with certainty that when khamr (intoxicants) ferments, it becomes lawful, and I do not say: it becomes pure; because khamr in its original state is not impure = -- and upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah -- = but it is forbidden. So when a chemical reaction occurred in it, the reality of the khamr changed, and it took on something else; where the intoxication went away, the prohibition went away, and it became something else, so it became lawful. So transformation and development are among the purifiers; until many of the Hanafi scholars, and indeed... and other scholars, said that the carrion...
The Shaykh : Biscuits.
The questioner : ... Cocoa is the same. On the soap, it is written that it contains animal fat. They say that this animal fat is from a dead cow from outside Kuwait... from Pakistan, or from a pig. I mean, this proportion in it is small. There are people who forbid it and do not eat it... if you please, clarify this for us?
The Shaykh : In reality, a jurist and another man, a chemist, must participate in answering this; because the fact that the fat present in the biscuits or cocoa or soap is a small amount does not change the ruling that it is not permissible to use it as long as it contains this impure thing. However, the matter that must be researched and for which the opinion of a Muslim chemist must be sought is: Is this fat, which is composed of the fat of a slaughtered cow or the fat of a pig, when it mixes with this mixture—and let us take soap as an example—does this fat remain fat, or does it undergo a chemical development due to this mixing, so that it exits its previous reality, which is being pig fat or the fat of a slaughtered animal; does it exit from this reality to another reality, and thus take on another ruling? Without a doubt, I, like others, cannot answer this; because it is not my specialty, I am not a chemist. But based on the answer that will be obtained or emerge from that chemist, we will say: Either he says: the fat remained as it was; in that case, it is said: it is not permissible... because it is impure because it is forbidden. And if he said: No, due to the chemical development, its reality changed and it became another reality, then we look at this other reality: Is it forbidden in the Shari'ah?
Another questioner: Peace be upon you.
The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
Or is it impure, or is it not forbidden and not impure; in that case, its use becomes permissible. And this development has a ruling in Islam, of course; because it is known with certainty that when khamr (intoxicants) ferments, it becomes lawful, and I do not say: it becomes pure; because khamr in its original state is not impure = -- and upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah -- = but it is forbidden. So when a chemical reaction occurred in it, the reality of the khamr changed, and it took on something else; where the intoxication went away, the prohibition went away, and it became something else, so it became lawful. So transformation and development are among the purifiers; until many of the Hanafi scholars, and indeed... and other scholars, said that the carrion...
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.