Is it Permissible to Take Medicine That Contains Gelatin?

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

I have a medical condition for which I have been given medication by my consultant. The medication contains gelatin and is not available in any other form. There is nothing I can take as a substitute for this medication either. According to the Hanafi Madhab, would it be permissible for me to take this medication?

Answer

Most Hanafi fuqaha in our times consider gelatin to be an impure substance if derived from pork or an animal not Islamically slaughtered, holding that the change it undergoes from its original state is not sufficient to be considered ‘essential transformation’ (tabdil al-mahiyya).

As such, gelatin from such sources would be considered filthy (najis). Therefore, this issues goes back to using impure substances as medicine.

The general ruling is that it is impermissible to use impure substances for medical purposes.

However, as mentioned by Ibn Abidin and others, it is permitted to use impure substances for medical purposes if:

– it is reasonably known that the medicine will be effective, and is needed;

– there is no permissible alternative reasonably available;

– and this has been established by an expert Muslim doctor who is at least outwardly upright, or through part experience, or clear signs (e.g. it is clearly known to one and all that this is the only medical alternative, for example).

And Allah knows best.

Wassalam,
[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani spent ten years studying with some of the leading scholars of recent times, first in Damascus, and then in Amman, Jordan. His teachers include the foremost theologian of recent times in Damascus, the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas (may Allah have mercy on him), as well as his student Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi, one of the leading Hanafi fuqaha of the present age. He returned to Canada in 2007, where he founded SeekersGuidance in order to meet the urgent need to spread Islamic knowledge–both online and on the ground–in a reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible manner. He is the author of: Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School (White Thread Press, 2004.) Since 2011, Shaykh Faraz has been named one of the 500 most influential Muslims by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.