All praise be to Allah and may His peace and blessings be on His final and greatest messenger, Muhammad.

Dear Enquirer,

It is important to know that khamr is not only alcohol and alcohol is not all khamr.

The khamr that was present during the time of the Messenger of Allah was made mainly of dates and grapes, thus the Hanafi scholars limit the use of the term “khamr” to drinks made of these two substances, but they still forbid intoxication by any drink.

The majority of scholars – and that is clearly the stronger position – consider all intoxicants to be khamr, for the Prophet (Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said,

" كل مُسْكِر خَمْر ، وكل مُسْكِرٍ حَرَام."

“Every intoxicant is khamr and every intoxicant is haraam.” [Reported by Muslim]

Thus, the majority would consider haraam any amount of a beverage that intoxicates, whether it is fermented from cooked juices or from uncooked materials like honey, wheat, barley, millet, or figs.

This is the right position based on the following hadeeth reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim,

عَنْ أَبِي مُوسَى قَالَ : بَعَثَنِي النَّبِيُّ r أَنَا وَمُعَاذَ بْنَ جَبَلٍ إِلَى الْيَمَنِ ، فَقُلْتُ : يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ، إِنَّ شَرَابًا يُصْنَعُ بِأَرْضِنَا يُقَالُ لَهُ الْمِزْرُ مِنْ الشَّعِيرِ ، وَشَرَابٌ يُقَالُ لَهُ الْبِتْعُ مِنْ الْعَسَلِ ، فَقَالَ : " كُلُّ مُسْكِرٍ حَرَامٌ ."

Abu Musa said, "The Prophet (Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) sent me and Mu’adh ibn Jabal to Yemen, and I said, 'O Messenger of Allah, there is a drink that is made in our land called al-mizr, made from barley, and another drink called al-bit`, made from honey.' He (Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said, 'Every intoxicant is haraam.'"

At the time of the Prophet (Allah's peace and blessings be upon him), solid or gaseous substances which cause intoxication were unknown, but when they became first known (hashishah = cannabis) to the Muslim scholars, the most learned of them did not hesitate to include them under the terminology of khamr, so they became automatically forbidden by the textual proofs that forbid khamr, or at least they included them under the ruling of khamr by analogy (qiyas).

Imam Ibn Taymeah said,

“وأما المحققون من الفقهاء فعلموا أنها [الحشيشة] مسكرة ، وإنما يتناولها الفجار ، لما فيها من النشوة والطرب ، فهي تجامع الشراب المسكر في ذلك. والخمر توجب الحركة والخصومة ، وهذه توجب الفتور واللذة ، وفيها مع ذلك من فساد المزاج والعقل ، وفتح باب الشهوة ، وما توجبه من الدياثة مما يجعلها من شر الشراب المسكر ، وإنما حدثت في الناس بحدوث التتار. وعلى تناول القليل منها والكثير حد الشرب ، ثمانون سوطا ، أو أربعون إذا كان مسلما يعتقد تحريم المسكر "

"The verifying scholars recognized that it [hashish=cannabis] is an intoxicant, only consumed by the wicked, because of the euphoria it brings, so, it is like intoxicating drinks. Khamr causes increased energy and quarrels, whereas this causes lassitude and enjoyment, but it still has the characteristics of corrupting the mood and intoxicating the mind as well as exacerbating lustful desires and causing a lack of protectiveness over his household. All of this would make it even worse than intoxicating drinks. This [the appearance of hashish in Muslim lands] came along with the advent of the Tatars. The one who consumes a little or a lot of it deserves the punishment prescribed for drinking: eighty or forty lashes, if he is a Muslim who believes in the prohibition of intoxicants.” [Al-Fatawa al-Kubra: 3/423]    

The position of giving all drugs the name of khamr is stronger and supported by the Prophet’s saying, “Every intoxicant is khamr.”

That is the first part of the issue that needed to be clarified: that khamr refers to all intoxicants.

As for alcohol, there are so many types of alcohol. The alcohol which was present in the khamr during the time of the Messenger of Allah and that is found in modern day alcoholic beverages is ethyl alcohol, or more precisely, ethanol.

The word, "alcohol," was not used during the time of the Messenger, and we need to know a little about it to dispel any confusion that may result in mistaken judgment.

Obviously (and as admitted by western academics), the word is of Arabic origin. The "al–" in "alcohol" indicates its Arabic etymology, for "al-" in Arabic is the definite article which corresponds to "the" in English.

The origin of the word, "cohol," may have to do with "kuhl," which is a fine powder mostly made of antimony and it was mainly used in cosmetics. It could also have come from "ghawl," or, "ghool," a word used in the Quran to refer to the after-effects of wine.

Alcohol is made by the processing of natural products, such as the fermentation of carbohydrates or reductive cleavage of natural fats and oils, or manufactured from petroleum hydrocarbons. So, not all alcohol is made by the fermentation of carbohydrates as was the case during the Prophet’s time.

Alcohols are derivatives of hydrocarbons in which one or more of the hydrogen atoms have been replaced by a hydroxyl (-OH) functional group. Hydrocarbons are compounds which contain hydrogen (H) and carbon (C) only. There are many types of alcohol, such as ethyl alcohol (the type present in alcoholic beverages), methanol, which is used in various products, such as anti-freeze, glycol and isopropyl alcohol, which are both toxic and intoxicant, but there are also types of alcohol, such as the completely denatured alcohols, which are not intoxicant, because alcohol simply means hydroxylated hydrocarbons. It is always safe, however, to consider all alcohols intoxicant, whether they are natural or synthetic, because the very vast majority of alcohols are.

Vanilla extract is a solution containing the flavor compound vanillin. Pure vanilla extract is made by extracting the flavor of vanilla beans in an alcoholic solution. In order for vanilla extract to be called pure, the FDA requires that the solution contain a minimum of 35% alcohol and 13.35 ounces of vanilla bean per gallon. This extract is then added in small amounts to ice cream and other food products.

The ruling depends on a few factors:

1 - First, If a large quantity of a substance intoxicates, then a small quantity of that substance is forbidden. Conversely, if the large quantity did not intoxicate, then intoxication would not be a reason for the substance to be forbidden. That is confirmed by the following hadeeth,

" ما أسْكَر كَثيرُه فقَليلُه حَرَام "

"Whatever intoxicates in large quantities, a small quantity of it is forbidden."

[Related by Abu Dawood, an-Nasaey and others authentically]

Now, does ice cream made with vanilla extract intoxicate? No one would say that. So, when does it become an intoxicant? If you extract the alcohol from that extract in the ice cream and isolate it, then it becomes an intoxicant and forbidden for consumption even if it is trivial in amount, because a large amount of the same substance would result in intoxication.

2 - Second, does mixing alcohol with food products make them impermissible or impure?

According to the stronger position (of the minority), alcohol is not physically impure. Thus, it doesn’t turn the mixture into impurity. Even, if it was impure, submersion in a large quantity of tahir (pure substance) according to the stronger position, does not affect the ruling of the pure substance unless one the characteristics of alcohol prevails (color, smell or taste).

Does mixing it with another substance change the ruling of the new substance even if it is not impure? Yes, if it makes the new substance an intoxicant.

3 - Third, would it be permissible for Muslims to add alcohol to food products? No - as in the case of turning alcohol into vinegar - that would not be permissible for Muslims, though, it would be permissible for them to consume it if it was added by others, and most certainly if it occurred naturally in a food (even bread goes through fermentation) so long as the consumed substance is not intoxicant, even in large quantities.

Based on what is said above, we believe that it is permissible to use food products which contain vanilla extract. 

I hope this answer is satisfactory.

And Allah knows best.