Is Sugar Tincture Halal?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
Is sugar tincture halal?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.
I pray you are in good faith and health.
If tinctures are made using any type of alcohol, they are not halal and permissible.
Tinctures are a favored method of extracting medicinal properties from plants. They are one of the oldest herbal preparations, created and used thousands of years ago, and are still widely used today.
What is a Tincture?
A tincture is a concentrated herbal extract that uses alcohol as the solvent.
To understand what a tincture is, we need to also understand what isn’t a tincture. So, a tincture is an herbal extract that uses alcohol as the menstruum (solvent): if the menstruum isn’t alcohol, then the herbal preparation is not a tincture but an extract. An extract uses water, vinegar, or other forms of solvents. An extract that uses glycerin instead of alcohol is called a glycerite. An extract that uses vinegar is called an acetum. Herbs prepared with rubbing alcohol are called liniments and are for external use only — rubbing alcohol can be fatal if taken internally. However, a tincture can be used safely internally and externally (depending on the herb used).
Related:
How to Make an Herbal Tincture (Folk Method) – Wolf Camp & School of Natural Science at Blue Skye Farm
Can Medicines Containing Alcohol Be Taken to Prevent Disease?
Is It Haram to Drink Gatorade Which Might Potentially Have Alcohol?
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I pray this helps with your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete the hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled in an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and ‘Aalimiyya sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan. He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for several years. He has taught hifz of the Quran, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to children and adults onsite and online extensively in the UK and Ireland. He taught at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences. He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His interest is a love of books and gardening.
