Wearing perfume containing alcohol and ability to pray

8-2-2004 | IslamWeb

Question:

I read in one of your Fatwa that "perfumes mixed with alcohol are Najasa" and if you use them you can't perform prayers. I live in USA and my job requires me to be clean and smell nice. I don't think I can find perfume or cologne in USA not mixed with alcohol. What do you advise me to do?

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Answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

We have chosen in this issue the opinion of the majority of scholars who consider such perfumes unlawful because intoxicating alcohol is impure and it is, according to them, what is found in perfumes. No doubt that following this opinion is safer and away from any doubts. Nevertheless, some Muslim scholars consider alcohol pure as a product and that the alcohol found in perfumes has changed through manufacturing into a different product that does not cause drunkenness. Hence, these scholars consider using perfumes containing alcohol lawful. But, we advise you to do your best to get alcohol-free perfumes even from a foreign country and this might not be difficult nowadays because of the relative ease of transporting goods from one place to another.

Allah knows best.