What is the ruling on using some perfumes that contain the substance (spirits) (an alcoholic substance)?

The questioner : Our esteemed Shaykh, regarding the use of some perfumes, especially those that contain the substance spirits, is there any prohibition in using them? And what is your statement regarding the substance spirits? Is it ritually impure or ritually pure? Please issue a ruling for us, may Allah reward you, and may Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : Spirit is, in terms of the legal ruling, actually the mother of all abominations, just as you know, the mother of all abominations. And khamr (intoxicants) is a compound of water and sweet, sugary substances. From these, the alcohol—neither the water nor the sweet sugar present in this khamr—is the cause of intoxication; rather, the cause of intoxication is the alcohol. Therefore, it is correct for me to say that alcohol or spirit is the mother of all abominations. And if Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has forbidden the mother of all abominations, then it is all the more so that the mother of all abominations is forbidden in His Shari'ah. But what students of knowledge must know is that there is no necessary legal connection between something being forbidden and it being ritually impure. Rather, the reverse is correct: everything that is ritually impure in the Shari'ah is forbidden, but not the reverse; that is, not everything that is forbidden is ritually impure. First, this is from the perspective of the Shari'ah; that is, this connection between the forbidden and impurity has not come in the Shari'ah. No text has come, neither in the Book nor in the Sunnah, despite the disagreement among Muslims, as we will mention. Second, there is a consensus among the scholars of Muslims regarding the prohibition of certain things, and on the other hand, another consensus that these forbidden things are not ritually impure. For example, gold is forbidden for men and permissible for women, with details that are not the place to mention now. So if a man were wearing a gold ring on his finger, he has undoubtedly committed a forbidden act. If he stood up to pray, did he pray while carrying ritual impurity? He prayed while carrying what is forbidden, but he did not pray while carrying ritual impurity, even though it is forbidden. So there is no connection between something being forbidden and it being ritually impure. Similarly, if a man prayed on a silk carpet or prayed while wearing a silk garment, he prayed while wearing what is forbidden for men. But is his prayer invalid because he prayed while carrying ritual impurity? The answer is no; there is no connection between the forbidden and ritual impurity. Finally, among the interesting examples brought by Imam al-San'ani (may Allah have mercy on him) in his book *Subul al-Salam* to show that there is no connection between prohibition and impurity, he said: Allah the Exalted said: to the end of the verse. So are your mothers ritually impure? The answer, by consensus, is no. So there is no connection between prohibition and making something impure. Based on this, we should say regarding the well-known disagreement among scholars since ancient times about khamr: is it, in addition to being forbidden by consensus, ritually impure such that if a Muslim's garment is touched by something of the impurity—excuse me, something of the khamr—without his intention, does that mean his garment becomes impure? There are two opinions among the scholars. Some say khamr is forbidden and ritually impure. Some say it is forbidden but not ritually impure. Of course, every Muslim who is eager to know the legal ruling with its evidence asks: What is the evidence for the purity of khamr despite its prohibition? We say, first, this question is not jurisprudential or scientific. Why? The question should have been: What is the evidence for the impurity of khamr? Because the original ruling for things is permissibility. This is a principle of jurisprudence among the scholars. For example, tobacco: a man who is afflicted with smoking, and some of them, unfortunately, decorate their chests and pockets with the shiny, colorful gold packets, and so on. But he is not smoking; the tobacco is in his pocket. This tobacco is forbidden to smoke, but he is now praying with the tobacco in his pocket. Is he carrying ritual impurity? The answer is no. This is a plant, and there is no evidence that it is ritually impure. But because it is harmful and its bad smell harms him and his companions and those praying next to him, and so on, this tobacco is forbidden but not ritually impure. And so it stands. The correct question is: What is the evidence for the impurity of khamr? The answer is: there is no evidence other than the implication of impurity from prohibition. And we have just shown that there is no connection; impurity is disconnected from what is forbidden, but the forbidden is connected to what is impure. Nevertheless, as an act of voluntary devotion and extra worship, we present some hadiths that indicate that khamr, despite its impurity and prohibition, is not ritually impure. For example, when khamr was forbidden, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) ordered it to be poured out in the alleys of Madinah. And we know that the roads at that time were not paved or asphalted as they are now, but were made of dirt, and soon that earth would turn into mud with rain. Also, when the Messenger (peace be upon him) poured out the khamr in the alleys of Madinah, the secret of that was to make the prohibition widespread in the hearts of those people who were afflicted with drinking khamr in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, so they would know that this khamr walking in the alleys of Madinah has become forbidden. We know that there are legal rulings concerning the shoes of men and women, and that it is permissible for all of them to pray in their shoes, as he (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) said: And he (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: And regarding women, what concerns their trailing garments, where the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said, when Umm Salamah heard among those who heard his saying (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): She said: O Messenger of Allah, what about women? He (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: She or another woman said: O Messenger of Allah, the wind may blow. He said: Meaning, it drags on the ground. A question came at another time: O Messenger of Allah, one of us may drag her garment over impurity. He (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: So if these roads had khamr that was ritually impure, it would mean that the Messenger exposed the shoes of men and women and the trailing garments of women to becoming impure. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would not have done that if Allah had revealed to him that khamr is ritually impure as it is forbidden. The second evidence, and it is clearer, is that when the prohibition of khamr was revealed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and he said at the end of the verse: 'Umar ibn al-Khattab said, "We have stopped, O our Lord." There was a wineskin full of khamr somewhere. He (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) asked for a knife and began to cut the wineskin. Someone said: O Messenger of Allah, there is benefit in it. He said: Yes. They said: There is benefit in it, as if saying, pour it out but do not tear the wineskin because there is benefit in it. He (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) did not say: There is no benefit in it because it is ritually impure. But he approved their statement by saying "Yes," but he continued. He said: I only did that as retribution for the sanctities of Allah, meaning to emphasize the prohibition of khamr, by cutting the wineskin which he acknowledged could be preserved and used. So khamr, if it touches a wineskin—and you may know that a wineskin is not the smooth vessel of what is this metal, pottery, or the shiny, beautiful thing, and so on. No, a wineskin is a sucking skin that absorbs. Nevertheless, he approved that this wineskin could be used, but he only cut it as retribution for the sanctities of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). In conclusion, khamr and its origin, spirit, is impure and forbidden, but it is not ritually impure. If we know this fact, we can answer part of the previous question: the alcohol found in some perfumes does not make the perfume ritually impure. It is permissible, in this state, since it is not ritually impure, to perfume one's garment, face, or hair. But now comes the answer to the first part of the question: Is it permissible to use perfumes that contain khamr, i.e., the mother of khamr, which is spirit? The answer here involves two matters, and one must pay attention to the difference between them. Either this perfume is made with the alcohol in a country of Islam, and this is not permissible, because that means the Muslim is distilling alcohol from any substance, and this is not permissible due to what was mentioned earlier of his (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) saying, in a list of ten people he cursed, including the one who distills it and the one who extracts it. So this is not permissible. But if this second case occurs, if these perfumes come ready-made to the lands of Islam, they are examined with this precise, thorough examination. If the alcohol in them is in a high proportion, as is the case with much of what is called cologne, the alcohol in it may be sixty, seventy, eighty percent, and so on, such that thisThe questioner : so-called cologne: some alcoholics are able, with some additions they make to this cologne, to drink it and satisfy their forbidden need. So if the proportion of alcohol is high, it is not permissible to trade in it, neither buying nor selling. But if the proportion of alcohol is low such that it cannot be described as thisThe questioner : He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: If the proportion of alcohol is small, it is permissible to buy and sell these perfumes. This is the detail of what came in that question. You have only five minutes now, and we will finish, if Allah wills. We said at the beginning of the session that we want to maintain our statement: I do not want to hear a voice, but rather I see a raised hand only.