Question 104: I have a question regarding lotions and other beauty products with animal ingredients. I know that if these products have haram ingredients, they are impermissible to use, however, what if we do not know? I emailed some of the companies from which I bought products and several of them said that they use plant ingredients whenever possible. This suggests that they may use animal ingredients at times. Because we are uncertain, are these products permissible to use? JazakAllah Khair
Answer 104: A well-known religious law says: “Everything is ritually pure for you unless you come to know that it is ritually impure.” This law declares everything to be pure unless one becomes sure a particular item has become impure. And as long as you are not sure that it has become ritually impure (najis), it is to be considered pure and you can apply all the rules of purity to it without any hesitation or doubt.[1]
Therefore, as you are not sure that such products have been extracted from those animals that are ceremonially unclean or those halal animals that have not been slaughtered canonically (Islamically) nor a lot of changes made on them to be considered as Istihala (chemical transformation)[2], they would be treated as halal. There is no need to be examined from which types of animal they have been extracted.[3]
Note: If a chemical change occurs in the original ingredients during the process of manufacturing such products, it is clean and there is no problem at all in using it, even if the original ingredient may have been pork or meat of an animal which has not been slaughtered according to Islamic laws.
[1] . The official website of the office of Sayyid Sistani (ha), Q&A about Najasat.
[2] . If a najis thing undergoes such a change, that it assumes the category of a Pak thing it becomes Pak; for example, if a najis wood burns and is reduced to ashes, or a dog falls in a salt-marsh and transforms into salt, it becomes Pak. But a thing do es not become Pak if its essence or category does not change; like, if wheat is ground into flour, or is used for baking bread, it does not become Pak; The official website of the office of Sayyid Sistani (ha), rules regarding Mutahhirat, Transformation (Istihala).
[3] . A similar question was sent to the office of grand Ayatollahs: Khamenei, Sistani, Makarem Shirazi, Noori Hamadani, Safi Golpayegani (may Allah grant them long life).