𝗠𝗲𝗻'𝘀 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀 (77)

The Ruling on Alcohol Found in Perfumes, Creams and Other Cleaning Agents Questioner: As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Nearly all shampoos and cleaning products have perfume in them, and the ingredients in the perfume are not mentioned, but a common ingredient in perfume is alcohol. Are these products with perfume permitted? As nearly all products have perfume mentioned in the ingredients, and the perfume ingredient could have alcohol in it. Ustadh Faisal Abu Sulayman: So we say to the questioner that the first discussion amongst the scholars is that the alcohol found in perfumes, shampoos, creams, etc., is it alcohol that intoxicates, or is it a سُمّ, a poison which if someone were to take, they would die? And there is a differing amongst the contemporary scholars. One group of scholars hold the view that these alcohols present today in perfume and the like are actually intoxicants and they can actually potentially intoxicate somebody. And due to this, it is not permissible to use. But the second group of scholars, which is many of the contemporaries of the likes of Shekin of Uthaymeen, and also, as we'll see here, Majma' Fiqh, the International Fiqh Council and the likes, and also the other councils, they see it to be more of a poison, and that they're, number one, not impure because the impurity of alcohol even from wine is not established or the strongest view. So number one: it's PURE, number two: they say that the ethyl alcohol in use is methanol and ethanol, and a lot of times the ethanol which can intoxicate has been mixed with methanol which is a poison, and this is to avoid people from drinking it and in order to make sure that people are not going to turn to it for substance abuse. So due to this, inshallah, creams, shampoos, perfumes, colognes, and the likes have methanol in them and which is more of a poison than it is intoxicant. And that's why you find that the Council of Islamic Organisation for Medical Sciences in Kuwait in the year 1415, and this was published by the Islamic Fiqh Council in their resolutions, they passed the fatwa and the ruling saying that Sharia does not consider alcohol as an impure material based on the previous principle. And then they said that there's no harm in using perfumes in which alcohol is used as dissolvent of volatile perfume materials or using creams that contain alcohol. Nonetheless, THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO WINE because it's prohibited to seek benefit from it. So they differentiated between the creams and the shampoos and the likes which have a CHEMICAL ALCOHOL which is more of a poison than it is khamr that intoxicates and therefore it's permissible to use them. And number two, as the brother brother mentioned almost all the ingredients now we find in deodorants and shampoos and creams have some kind of fragrance that uses alcohol as a carrier, this is now from the umoom balwaa (widespread calamity) which is even impossible for someone to avoid had they even tried...so inshallah there is no harm in this due to this difference of opinion, but many of these big councils have ruled that (it's allowed), so inshallah the person is able to use them. Ustadh Abu Fajr Also to add, on the opinion of those who refer to these things that are found therein is actual alcohol that is prohibited, they say it is a small minute amount that's found therein and with istihlaak it disappears in the composition with the other ingredients found. For example in the shampoo or in the perfume or these other products with the combination, its effect disappears and is no longer existing. This is from the statements of Sheikh Fawzan, and even those scholars that say that it is impure they say this too disappears with istihlaak and no longer has an effect and no longer has any signs to it, so for that reason it's permissible to use. Source: https://t.me/Menzbenefits/290