Use of Alcohol

It is a universally accepted fact that the use of alcohol as a inebriating substance is harmful for life. However, its other uses remain controversial among the Muslim theologians. In order to develop appropriate clarity on the matter, the Fourteenth Seminar of the IFA considered it and propounded the following opinion.

58.1 Alcohol is a chemical substance, which is prepared by the process of decomposing various kinds of carbohydrates or sugar present in fruits and cereals. It is of many types, but only one of them is intoxicating in nature.

58.2 Certain medicinal drugs contain ethyl alcohol. This type of alcohol is intoxicating in nature and it does not lose its characteristics in spite of being mixed in the drug. However, as far as the treatment and cure is concerned, Shariah clearly mentions some provisions, by which the consumption of alcohol-containing drugs is permissible, in case no other alternative is available.

58.3 According to the research reports of the experts, the alcohol used in the preparation of perfume is not intoxicating in nature. Therefore, it is not unclean.