Full Lecture Transcript (Cleaned)
The Question — 0:00
Brother Mustafa from India asks: what types of animal leather are allowed? And if you tan an animal's skin, does it purify it and make it permissible?
The Short Answer — 0:20
The brief answer: tanning is a form of complete transformation (istihala) that makes the impure into the pure. Technically speaking, from a pure fiqh perspective, there is no difference between any animal's skin once it has been properly tanned — tanning transforms it into something permissible.
However, Yasir Qadhi recommends avoiding pig leather, because the majority position holds that pig remains an exception, and because we really do not want to involve ourselves with that animal unnecessarily. Other than pig, all other hides are permissible after tanning.
The Five Scholarly Positions — 1:00
There are actually about ten opinions on this topic, but Yasir Qadhi summarizes the five most important:
Position 1 — Most restrictive (some Hanbalis and Malikis): Only the leather of an animal that was properly slaughtered (dhabiha) is permitted. An animal that died naturally — even if it is a goat, camel, or cow — may not have its skin used. This means only the skin of slaughtered edible animals qualifies.
This is the most restrictive position, and Yasir Qadhi notes it has essentially been abandoned in the modern world because the evidence does not support it and it is practically impossible to implement.
Position 2 — Standard Hanbali and Maliki (Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Qudama, most of Yasir Qadhi's own teachers): All edible animals — whether slaughtered or found dead — may have their skin tanned and used. The evidence for this is a hadith in Bukhari and Muslim: the Prophet ﷺ passed by a dead sheep and asked his family why they were not benefiting from its skin. When they said it was a dead animal (mayta), he replied: "What is forbidden is to eat the animal." This hadith is unambiguously clear. The tanning of the skin of a dead edible animal makes it pure and permissible.
Position 3 — Shafi'i and many Hanafis: All animal skin is permissible after tanning except pig and dog. Imam al-Shafi'i said the hadith "Any skin that has been tanned becomes pure" is general — the Prophet ﷺ did not specify only sheep or cow. He said any skin. Al-Shafi'i then carves out two exceptions: pig, because the Quran explicitly calls it filthy (rijs), and dog, because the saliva of a dog is najis, placing it in the same elevated category as pig. This means, for example, crocodile leather would be permissible under this view.
Position 4 — Imam Abu Hanifa: All tanned leather is permissible except pig. Abu Hanifa includes dogs as permitted (unlike al-Shafi'i) but still excepts pig. Yasir Qadhi gives his fatwa based on this position.
Position 5 — Abu Yusuf and the Dhahiri school: All animal skin without exception becomes pure through tanning, including pig leather. Their argument: when the Prophet ﷺ said "any skin that is tanned becomes pure," he meant any skin, full stop. From a purely theoretical standpoint, Yasir Qadhi says he is actually sympathetic to this position's internal consistency — it is the most logically coherent reading of the hadith.
Yasir Qadhi's Fatwa — 5:00
His personal fatwa is the Hanafi position: avoid pig leather; all other properly tanned leather is permissible regardless of whether the animal was slaughtered or found dead, and regardless of what species it is.
If someone chooses to follow Abu Yusuf or the Dhahiri view and uses pig leather after tanning, they are following major scholars and have a scholarly basis — Yasir Qadhi does not condemn this position. But his own fatwa is to avoid pig.
For the practical majority of Muslims: your leather belt, your leather shoes, your leather jacket, your leather couch — all of these are permissible as long as they are not pig leather. And Allah knows best.