Alcohol based hand Gels

[blm2007]

Muslims refuse to use alcohol-based hand gels over religious beliefs

Some Muslims have refused to use alcohol-based hand gels to combat the spread of swine flu because they claim it is against their religion.

Some of those employed by St Albans Council in Hertfordshire have complained about the antibacterial lotion, which is considered a key strategy in containing the virus.

Officials were concerned because the Koran bans Muslims from consuming alcohol, so council chiefs issued them with non-alcohol hand gels, which studies have shown to be less effective in killing bugs.

But Muslim leaders criticised the council’s decision to change the gel, pointing out that Islamic teachings allow Muslims to use alcohol for medicinal purposes.

The Muslim Council of Britain said: ‘We would advise people to follow the medical advice so we would, of course, encourage people to use hand gel. ‘People need to find ways to accommodate their beliefs.’

Councils, schools and businesses across the country have ordered supplies of alcohol-based hand gels to reduce the spread of swine flu.

A spokesman for St Albans Council said it had issued hand gel to all employees in May.
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[McBell]

I find it rather hard to believe that the Koran bans the use of isopropyl alcohol.

Would you by chance happen to have a verse?

 

[Sahar]

[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica]Dear scholars,as-salamu `alaykum.

I work in a hospital where we are required to wear gloves daubed with a substance that contains alcohol as a means of protection against swine flu. So, is it permissible for us to touch alcohol, though it is impure?

Answer:
Of course, you can wear such gloves without any Shar`i restriction since the impurity of alcohol is controversial, and even if it is indisputably impure, necessity in this case dictates its own law (i.e., the forbidden is rendered lawful in this case).

Moreover, alcohol was not known for our earlier jurists with its current description and form, and therefore they did not directly tackle the rulings pertaining to alcohol in terms of purity.

Using Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizers as a Protection from Swine Flu - IslamonLine.net - Ask The Scholar

Conclusion of the fatwa:
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Thus, if wine, which is the basis for the prohibition, is controversial as regards its material impurity, then alcohol is more deserving of being so.

Besides, if wine is impure, and by analogy alcohol is impure too, necessities still make the prohibited things lawful, when one also know that touching impure substances is permissible in case of need or necessity. A Muslim may touch uncontroversial impurity during istinjaa' (cleansing the private parts after urination or defecation), and a physician may touch blood when performing surgical or childbirth operations. In the past, the person who used to perform cupping would draw out blood with his or her mouth and then spit it out, and the Shari`ah did not forbid such act.

Furthermore, alcohol is among the highly volatile substances that quickly vaporize, and in turn, there is no harm in using it.

Eventually, protecting oneself is among the objectives of Shari`ah and it is given precedence to anything else. Hence, it is permissible to touch alcohol even if it is indisputably impure in case there is no alternative means of protection but it. Protection against disease is among the aims that we are commanded to pursue by our honorable Shari`ah.