Non-Alcoholic Beer: Prohibited?

Question: Is non-alcoholic beer halal? Can Muslims consume it?

Answer:

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Thanks for your question, and we implore Allah to guide us all to the best way through which we can learn more about what is lawful in order to follow it and what is prohibited in order to refrain from approaching it.

Indeed, Muslims need to understand the process of making so-called non-alcoholic beers or wines. The process to make alcoholic and non-alcoholic beers and wines is the same. Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beers and wines are haram. Once the beer or the wine is produced, alcohol is extracted from it to make it non-alcoholic. Never is 100 percent of the alcohol removed. The Islamic principle is that if the whole of a thing is haram, the part of it is also haram. By that principle non-alcoholic beers and wines are haram.

Responding to the question, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, states the following:

Thank you for your query.

Our position is that non-alcoholic beer is not halal. Our position is based on the premise that

1. It is drunk as an alternative to something which is haram, that is, alcoholic beer.

2. The culture of wine and beer drinking which the drink entails is non-Islamic and, therefore, haram.

Therefore, based on the principle of blocking the doors to transgression in Islamic jurisprudence, non-alcoholic beer is haram.