Shellac: Fiqhi Appraisal - Halal or Haram?

3.2 Cleansing

Since it is the lac resin, and not the insect bodies, that is actually sought, sticklac/grainlac is subjected to two forms of treatment aimed at the removal of insect bodies and other unwanted impurities like twigs and leaves. These two processes are filtering and washing.


3.2.1 Filtering

There are two methods for the removal of unwanted solid impurities from shellac:


• The traditional method of filtering involves placing the sticklac/grainlac in sock-like canvas tubes which are heated over fire. The lac liquefies and drips from the canvas tubes, leaving beetle parts and other impurities behind.

• In the modern method insect parts etc. are removed through filtration by means of filter presses equipped with polyethylene filter cloths.


3.2.2 Washing

The next stage is described in one source[2] as follows:
The orange or reddish colour of unbleached shellac comes about on account of the dye that is released from the lac seeds. The rinsing washes away most of the dye, but the reddish tint generally proves very difficult to remove. The above source states:

Colourless shellac is obtained through bleaching. The bleaching process involves dissolving the seedlac in and acqueous solution of sodium carbonate, filtering it, bleaching it with a dilute solution of sodium hypochlorite, and then precipitating it from the solution by the addition of dilute sulphuric acid. Thereafter it is filtered and washed with water.

At this stage it is called seedlac.


3.3 Refining

In the previous stage insect parts have been completely removed from the seedlac.[3] The impurities that remain comprise chiefly of wax. Seedlac with 3 - 5% impurities is further subjected to either heat treatment or solvent extraction.


3.3.1 Heat treatment

3.3.2 Solvent extraction

Solvent extraction involves the removal of substances from a mixture through preferential dissolution in a suitable solvent.
Resin that has undergone these processes of refinement is called shellac.


3.4 Use in the confectionery industry

Shellac is shipped in the form of flakes or powder. Confectioners and other users dissolve the shellac flakes in ethanol, in a solution of 50 litres of ethanol for 14 kg of shellac flakes.[6] Small amounts of this solution are added to large quantities of the product intended to be coated with shellac in centrifugally spinning containers.[7] The removal of ethanol from this solution comes about through spontaneous evaporation of the ethanol.


4. IS IT ḤALĀL TO CONSUME?

The answer to this question requires focus upon 3 aspects of shellac:

• its origin

• the processes of cleansing and refinement

• the use of ethanol


4.1 Origin

Lac is secreted by the lac beetle. Substances discharged by animals may be divided into two categories:

• Substances discharged through the digestive tract, either through the mouth or the rectum. This category includes excreta and urine, and in the case of the bee, honey, which is regurgitated from the honey sac back through the mouth.

• Substances discharged through exocrine glands, such as silk in the silk worm, beeswax in the honey bee, and saliva and sweat in humans.

The former category includes both ṭāhir substances, like honey, and najis ones, such as excreta, urine and vomit. Substances in the latter category are exclusively ṭāhir.

Two forms of qiyās are possible here:

• A qiyās musāwī (equivalent analogy) upon gland-secreted substances like silk and
 beeswax, with the common ʿillah being the manner of secretion.

• A qiyās awlawī (a fortiori analogy) upon honey: if honey is ṭāhir despite originating out of the digestive tract, the same should hold for lac, a fortiori.

In terms of its origin, therefore, lac is both ṭāhir and ḥalāl.


4.2 Cleansing and refinement

The presence of beetle parts in sticklac and seedlac is undesirable to manufacturers and endusers. It is precisely the desire for a product that is free from beetle parts and other impurities that motivates manufacturers to undertake several processes of cleansing and refinement.

What needs to be determined from a fiqhī perspective, however, is—

• to what degree the initial presence of beetle parts in sticklac affects the consumability of shellac;

• and to what extent the cleansing and refining processes satisfy the requirement of Sharʿī purification.


4.2.1 Presence of insect parts

The madhāhib are unanimous upon the impermissibility to consume insects. Even the Mālikī madhhab, which has the widest latitude in dietary matters, does not unrestrictedly deem insects as permissible. The term ḥasharāt, commonly translated as “insects”, actually has a wider meaning than the class insecta under the phylum arthropoda, as can be seen in this quotation:

What further emphasises how untenable it would be to include an insect such as the lac beetle into the category of what is deemed lawful to the Mālikīs is the Mālikī requirement that ḥasharāt that have no flowing blood must be slaughtered. The minuteness of the lac beetle makes slaughter impossible.




Approaching the issue from the angle of the lawfulness to consume insects can therefore only yield a negative result—

• to the Shāfiʿīs, Ḥanafīs and Ḥanbalīs on account of istikhbāth;

• and to the Mālikīs due to a lack of tadhkiyah.

However, that approach is somewhat imprecise in that it fails to consider the real nature of the situation. It is not the lawfulness of consuming insects that is under investigation, but rather the question as to whether the presence of insect parts in a substance that is essentially ṭāhir and ḥalāl (as discussed above) would render that substance ḥārām.

From this perspective the issues to be considered are the following:

• Firstly, are the body parts of dead beetles najis?

• Secondly, in light of the answer to the above question, what effect would the presence of such body parts have on the ṭahārah of lac?

• Thirdly, what effect would the presence of such body parts have on the lawfulness to consume the lac?

• Fourthly, what would be the consequences of removing the insect parts?


4.2.1.1 Are the body parts of dead insects najis?

The general rule about animals that die on account of anything but Sharʿī slaughter is that their bodies become najis. Dead bodies of such animals are referred to as maytah. The lac beetle, however, belongs to a group of animals categorised by the fuqahā as “not having flowing blood.”

Opinions differ on the ṭahārah status of the dead bodies of such animals.

• To the majority of the fuqahā—the Ḥanafīs, Mālikīs, Ḥanbalīs and some Shāfiʿīs— the bodies of such animals are  ṭāhir.



• The carried opinion of the Shāfiʿī madhhab is that the bodies of bloodless animals are najis.



4.2.1.2 How does the presence of insect parts affect the ṭahārah of lac?

Notwithstanding the above difference of opinion, the madhāhib concur that the presence in liquid of dead insects that do not have flowing blood does not render that liquid najis.



4.2.1.3 How does the presence of insect parts affect the lawfulness of consuming lac?

Theoretically, lac may be consumed either—

• together with the body parts of insects;

• or after the removal of such parts.

The quotations above reveal the application of the rule of ʿafw (exemption) by the various madhāhib, to various degrees. All the madhāhib concur that the substance in which the dead bodies are found (lac in this case) remains both ṭāhir and, in principle, ḥalāl for consumption. As for the dead bodies themselves, the Mālikī madhhab the Shāfiʿī madhhab, in differing degrees, allow for the consumption of the dead bodies of insects within an edible substance.

In the case of shellac, however, what makes it unnecessary to explore the consumability of the body parts of dead insects is the fact that the cleansing and refinement processes entail the comprehensive removal of insect body parts.


4.2.1.4 What are the consequences of removing the insect parts?

Considering that shellac is—

• firstly, ṭāhir in origin

• and secondly, it is not polluted by the presence of dead insect body parts

the removal of those parts can only emphasise ṭāhir and ḥalāl status of shellac in principle. This removal of insect parts is achieved without any assimilation of insect parts, i.e. without blending the two substances (insect parts and lac) into one.


4.2.2 The non-removal of insect dye

There is, however, one area in which assimilation does occur, and that is where the dye released from crushed insect bodies remains behind in the lac despite filtering and washing, giving shellac its characteristic reddish tint.

Worthy of note in this regard is the fact that what remains behind is a colour, and that the removal of this colour entails considerable difficulty, having already withstood several washings. All four madhāhib concur that when the actual najāsah has been removed but its colour remains, and the removal of that colour is very difficult or impossible, the presence of that colour will be disregarded in terms of the rule of ʿafw, or overlooking.




4.3 The use of ethanol in dissolution

The use of ethanol in the manufacture and use of shellac occurs at least twice:

• once during the solvent extraction stage of processing;

• and again when manufacturers in the confectionery industry dissolve shellac flakes for use in their products.


4.3.1 Type of ethanol used

The alcohol used in solvent extraction as well as in the dissolution of the final shellac product is denatured ethanol. Denatured ethanol is ethanol that has been made unfit for human consumption through the addition of toxins, such as methanol, naphtha and pyridine, or bittering agents such as denatonium benzoate. The addition of toxins and bittering agents, however, does not remove the ability of ethanol to intoxicate; it only adds toxicity and a bitter taste to its existing attributes.

As such, if khamr is to be considered any liquid that has the ability to intoxicate, then denatured ethanol has to be regarded as khamr. That it can kill is an additional and coincidental attribute that does not eliminate the attribute of intoxication.

However, the question as to whether or not ethanol would be considered ḥarām and najis has to be answered in light of the source from which it is fermented. Ethanol may be obtained from a number of sources. If obtained through the fermentation of grapes or dates, it will be considered najis in all four madhāhib. If fermented from a source other than grapes or dates, it will be considered ṭāhir in the view of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and his pupil Imām Abū Yūsuf.  His other pupil, Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, concurs with the rest of the fuqahā that it  will be najis.

Ḥanafī fuqahā have traditionally differed in assigning preference between these two views. Some, like al-Maḥbūbī, al-Nasafī, al-Mawṣilī and Ṣadr al-Sharīʿah, assigned preference to the view of the Shaykhayn, Abū Ḥanīfah and Abū Yūsuf. Others, like Abu l-Layth al-Samarqandī, al-ʿAynī, and the authors of al-Kifāyah, al-Tanwīr, al-Multaqā, al-Mawāhibī, al-Nihāyah, al-Miʿrāj, Sharḥ al-Majmaʿ and Sharḥ Durar al-Biḥār, motivated by potential and actual abuse of the former position, assigned preference to the view of Imām Muḥammad.[8]

Notwithstanding the above, the increased industrial use of ethanol in modern times has prompted a number of contemporary Ḥanafī scholars to shift back to the position of Imām  Abū Ḥanīfah and Imām Abū Yūsuf.[9] In terms of this view, the use of ethanol from a source  other than grapes and dates in a product, will not negatively affect the ṭahārah or consumability of the product.[10]

For the rest of the fuqahā, it is not to the ṭahārah or consumability of ethanol that one should look for a solution to this problem, but rather to the manner in which its removal from the product comes about.


4.3.2 Manner of ethanol removal

There is general concurrence between the four madāhib that when wine turns into vinegar spontaneously, without any human inducement. With the exception of a contrary view attributed to the Mālikī jurist Saḥnūn, this is the view of all the fuqahā of the Ummah.[11]

What happens during a spontaneous conversion of wine to vinegar is that ethanol (CH3CH2OH) combines with oxygen (O2) to yield acetic acid (CH3COOH) and water (H2O). During this process of oxidation all the ingredients remain within the substance; all that happens is that they bond in a somewhat different chemical pattern. The result of the new chemical structure is that the factor of intoxication (iskār) is effectively removed. With this factor removed, the rules pertaining to purity and consumption also undergo a change: what was najis becomes ṭāhir, and what was ḥarām to consume becomes ḥalāl.

In the production and use of shellac, the use of ethanol is not accompanied by a similar alternative chemical bonding. In both solvent extraction and dissolution of flakes, ethanol is removed from the solution through spontaneous evaporation. Ethanol is known to be a very volatile liquid: it tends to vaporize quite rapidly. It was observed[12] that the ethanol-shellac solution, once added to chocolate products being panned centrifugally, emits a strong smell of wine that gradually decreases with the passage of time, until it disappears as the shellac coating hardens and dries. This hardening and drying of the shellac is due to the loss of ethanol.

We are thus faced with two parallel processes:

• the oxidation of ethanol

• and the evaporation of ethanol.

In the most important ways these two processes exhibit a great degree of similarity, as shown in this table:

[See full article linked at the bottom of the post for table]

Moreover, there is one aspect on account of which evaporation would appear to be a stronger and more effective factor for nullifying iskār than oxidation: Oxidation only leads to a new chemical arrangement between ethanol and oxygen, while in evaporation ethanol effectively departs from the substance. Whatever applies to oxidation must therefore apply to evaporation bi l-awlā, or a fortiori.

It might be contended that evaporation leaves a minuscule residue of ethanol. The response to this contention is that the oxidation of ethanol that produces vinegar also a small ethanol residue. The residual ethanol content for a few types of vinegars is given in the following table:[13]


[See full article linked at the bottom of the post for table]


5. CONCLUSION

5.1 Shellac derives from a pure source: the lac glands of the lac beetle.

5.2 In the processing of shellac, the lac remains uncontaminated by insect parts because the death of bloodless animals in a liquid does not contaminate that liquid according to all four madhāhib.

5.3 Also, such insect parts are essentially ṭāhir according to the Ḥanafīs, Mālikīs, Ḥanbalīs and some Shāfiʿīs.

5.4 Even if insect parts are deemed najis, as is the Shāfiʿī view, this fact is of little consequence because insect parts are filtered out early in the process.

5.5 The possibility of consuming insects does not arise at all due to the early removal of insect parts through filtering.

5.6 If the ethanol used to dissolve shellac is fermented from a source other than grapes or dates, it is ṭāhir and ḥalāl according to Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and Imām Abū Yūsuf.

5.7 In terms of the majority view ethanol is najis and ḥarām, but its disappearance from the  solution through spontaneous evaporation is equatable, with greater force, to the spontaneous oxidation of ethanol through which wine which is najis and ḥarām becomes ṭāhir and ḥalāl, virtually by consensus.

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[1] See Singh R, Elements of Entomology, Chapter 12: Exocrine and Endocrine Glands, p. 174, 1st ed, 2006-2007, Rastogi Publications, Meerut UP, India

[2] www.enotes.com/how-products-encyclopedia/shellac

[3] According to an email communication from C Esterhuyse at Warren Chem Specialities, Killarney Gardens, Cape Town on 15/01/2010.


[4] www.enotes.com/how-products-encyclopedia/shellac

[5] Kharsa DR & Stephenson RA, Chemical Aspects of Drug Delivery Systems. 1996, p. 146

[6] Observed during a visit to Tiger Brands’ Beacon factory, Mobeni, Durban on 9/12/2009.

[7] In the case of Beacon’s chocolate coated peanuts, 100ml of shellac-ethanol solution was added to 44kg of nuts.

[8] Al-Maydānī, al-Lubāb vol. 3 p. 215

[9] See, for example, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Fattah Abū Ghuddah’s annotation, quoting Shaykh Zāhid al-Kawtharī, on Mullā ʿAlī al-Qarī’s Fatḥ Bāb al-ʿInāyah; Muftī Taqī ʿUthmānī, Takmilat Fatḥ al-Mulhim, vol. 3 p. 340, and Muftī  Ebrahim Desai, www.askimam.org/fatwa/fatwa.php?askid=4bef1f238544ba5d8b688bde180241d1

[10] The ethanol used by Beacon was noted during inspection to be produced by Illovo. According to its website, Illovo produces ethanol from molasses. www.illovo.co.za/Our_Products/Downstream_Products.aspx

[11] Al-Majmūʿ Sharh

[12] during the site visit to the Beacon factory on 9/12/2009

[13] Giudici P & Solieri L, Vinegars of the World, p. 14, Springer, Milan 2009

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