Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
- One of the basic objectives of the Shari`ah is to remove and alleviate whatever physical or psychological harm one faces in his daily life.
- There will be no harm if the person uses certain types of alcohol that are not impure and at the same time not unlawful to use.
Responding to the question, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, states,
Usually, the alcohol used in commercial products is synthetically made from chemical reaction, which is cheaper than a type produced from the fermentation of carbohydrates such as grapes and rice.
Synthetic alcohol is not najis (ritually impure). But alcohol made from the fermentation of carbohydrates is impure. This is because synthetic alcohol is very poisonous and thus cannot be consumed by humans; whereas alcohol produced by the fermentation of carbohydrates is consumable, although it is haram. Therefore, using products containing synthetically produced alcohol is allowable and will not nullify the Prayer.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.