Using items made of leather

4-1-2006 | IslamWeb

Question:

What kind of leathers are not permitted for Muslims to use?
Can we use things made of leather, when we do not know the source of its origion?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

It is absolutely not permissible for Muslims to use the leather of dead animals, or animals whose slaughtering are not considered [permissible] like pigs and dogs because of their impurity and because they are not fit to be used, as Allah Says (what means): {Prohibited to you are dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allah.} [Quran 5: 3]

So, it is prohibited to use the leather of a dead animal in the same manner that it is prohibited to use the dead animal itself. This is before the leather is tanned. However, if the leather is tanned, then the scholars greatly differed in opinion over this issue; a difference that is well-known. However, the preponderant opinion that is supported by evidence is the view of the scholars who said that the leather of all animals becomes pure if it is tanned for the general saying of the Prophet : “If the animal's skin is tanned, it is purified.” [Muslim] Another narration reads: “Any leather that is tanned becomes pure.” [Abu Daawood, Ibn Maajah, An-Nasaa’i, and At-Tirmithi] This Hadeeth is sound evidence that tanning makes the leather of any animal pure.

Therefore, it is permissible for the Muslims to use all tanned leather, and it is also permissible to use the items produced from it even if one does not know its origin.

However, it is more appropriate to avoid pig leather as there is a great difference of opinion about it, and most scholars are of the view that it does not become pure by tanning and the Prophet said: “Leave that which you doubt about to that which you do not doubt about.” [At-Tirmithi]

Allah knows best.