Answered by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed
Translated by Shaykh Hamza Karamali, SunniPath Academy Teacher
What is the ruling on natural leather with regards to purity? Is the prayer (or Tawaf) of a person who is wearing a leather jacket, or holding a leather bag, valid? And what is the ruling if my hand that was wet from making ablutions, brushed the leather jacket of another person? Can I make the assumption that the leather was pure?
Impure and Pure Hide and Leather
The hide of an animal that is permissible to eat [h: such as a cow or a sheep] is pure after it has been Islamically slaughtered, as is the hair on the hide [h: even if the hide has not been tanned].
The hide of an animal that is impermissible to eat [h: such as a snake or an elephant] is impure [h: after the animal dies], but it can be purified by tanning the hide [h: and turning it into leather]. The hair on the hide, however, of such an animal remains impure according to the strongest position in the Shafi`i school. Some Shafi`i scholars have held the position that the hair of a dead animal that has not been Islamically slaughtered is also purified through tanning (just like the hide), and this is a strong position [h: that is permissible for a layperson to follow].
The only animals whose hides cannot be purified through tanning are dogs and pigs. These hides can never be purified, even if they are tanned [h: and become leather].
Using Hide and Leather
It is permissible to wear pure hide or leather as clothing, whether inside of prayer or outside of it. Impure hide or leather, however, is not permissible to wear as clothing, even outside of prayer.
As for using and carrying a bag made of pure leather, it is permissible both inside and outside of prayer. If the bag is made of impure leather, then it is not permissible to carry it while performing an act of worship that requires purity–such as prayer, circumambulation, and delivering the Friday khutba–although it is permissible to use it for other things as long as the bag is not moist [h: because then it would make whatever it contacts impure].
Doubt Regarding Purity of Leather
If one doubts whether a particular piece of leather is pure of impure, then the initial assumption is that it is pure, as explicitly stated by the two great scholars Ibn Qasim and Shabramallisi.
It says in Tuhfat al-Muhtaj (1.301): “If one doubts whether certain hair is from an edible or an inedible animal, or whether it separated from the animal during its life or after its death, then it is [h: assumed to be] pure because the initial presumption regarding hair and the like is that it is pure. It follows by analogy that the ruling of bones is the same, as explicitly stated by the author of al-Jawahir.”
The commentator of the Tuhfa, Shirwani, notes regarding Ibn Hajar”s statement, “It follows by analogy that the ruling of bones is the same …” that the ruling of animal hides is also the same, and that this was stated by Ibn Qasim in Sharh al-Ghayah, and also by Ali Shabramallisi in his commentary on the Nihayah.
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