The Albani Cupcake Fatwa?

[abdulmuhsee]

Alright, so I seem to recall a fatwa from Albani stating that eating something like cupcakes which have a minuscule amount of alcohol therein for flavoring is halal, since you will never become drunk regardless of how many you eat.

Does anyone have a link to that fatwa? There's someone freaking out here because we used a sauce on our fish with the name 'bourbon' in it. There wasn't even any alcohol, it was just flavoring/marketing, but since the word is related to alcohol in some way, dramatics have ensued.

[AdamSami]

Alright, so I seem to recall a fatwa from Albani stating that eating something like cupcakes which have a minuscule amount of alcohol therein for flavoring is halal, since you will never become drunk regardless of how many you eat.

Does anyone have a link to that fatwa? There's someone freaking out here because we used a sauce on our fish with the name 'bourbon' in it. There wasn't even any alcohol, it was just flavoring/marketing, but since the word is related to alcohol in some way, dramatics have ensued.

If I'm not mistaken there is a fatwa on Islamqa regarding alcohol-free beer where they do touch upon the issue of when the amount of alcohol is so low that it is impossible to get drunk of it.

[nomad]

I would suggest that seen as you say that the sauce didnt even have alcohol in it , why not write to the manufacturers and ask them to clarify that.

The problem with the fatwa of eating a small amount that cant get you drunk, somewhere down the process of making the cup cake there is vast amounts of alcohol that could make you drunk.

[La Ta7zanoo]

assalamu 'alaykum wa Rahmatullah

Well, I don't know about Shaykh al-Albani's fatwa, but I did find this on Islam-QA:

We do not think that any alcoholic content in a thing makes it haraam, rather if something contains a percentage of alcohol which will make a person intoxicated if he drinks it, then it is haraam. But if the amount is miniscule and does not have any effect, then it is halaal.

Some people think that the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), “Whatever intoxicates in large quantities, a little of it is haraam”, mean that if a small percentage of an intoxicant is mixed with a large amount of a substance that is not intoxicating, then it is haraam. This is a misunderstanding of the hadeeth.

“Whatever intoxicates in large quantities, a little of it is haraam” means that if a lot of something will cause intoxication, and a little of it will not cause intoxication, then a lot or a little are both haraam, because you may drink a little that does not cause intoxication, then you may be tempted to drink more and become intoxicated. But if something is mixed with alcohol but the alcohol is a small amount and does not have any effect, then it is halaal and does not come under the ruling of this hadeeth.

Al-Baab al-Maftooh, 3/381-382.

Islam Question and Answer - Ruling on drinking beer

[Tuwaylib]

It basically goes back whether the person/scholar considers khamr najas or not... at least classically from what I understand.

[abdulmuhsee]

Thanks for the replies.