What is the ruling on using spirit vinegar, balsamic vinegar and similar kinds of vinegar?
Vinegar is lawful in principle
Muslim narrates from Jabir ibn ‘Abdillah (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Prophet ﷺ asked his family for something to eat with bread. They said: “We have nothing but vinegar.” He asked for it and began to eat with it, saying: “What an excellent condiment vinegar is! What an excellent condiment vinegar is!”
The Prophet ﷺ ate vinegar and praised it, so vinegar is lawful in principle.
Likewise, if wine turns into vinegar by itself, there is no harm in it according to most scholars.
Turning wine into vinegar deliberately
As for treating wine, by adding vinegar or other substances to it until it becomes vinegar, the jurists differ:
- The Shafi‘i and Hanbali schools hold that it is forbidden.
- The Hanafi and Maliki schools hold that it is lawful, and this is the view I prefer.
Their evidence includes:
- The Prophet’s ﷺ words “What an excellent condiment vinegar is!”, stated without distinguishing between wine made into vinegar and wine that became vinegar by itself.
- Making vinegar is an improvement, and so is permitted, by analogy with tanning hides. (al-Mawsu‘ah al-Fiqhiyyah, 19/260)
- Making vinegar removes the harmful quality and gives it a beneficial one, with benefits in medicine, nourishment and more; once the cause of the prohibition is removed it becomes lawful, just as when it turns into vinegar by itself.
Some scholars said it becomes pure and lawful, even though the act of making it into vinegar is forbidden. Their reasoning is that the cause of impurity is intoxication, and the intoxication has gone, so it is lawful.
Others said: if it is made into vinegar by someone who believes wine to be lawful, such as Jews and Christians, it becomes lawful and pure; if it is made by someone for whom it is not lawful, it remains forbidden and impure.
Conclusion
I therefore hold that the kinds of vinegar mentioned may be used. And Allah Most High knows best.
Director, The Bridge of Wisdom Limited (Sharia Consultancy)DM-2026-006 · 6 October 2026
About the mufti
- Holds ijazahs (formal licences) to issue fatwas and in comparative fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence).
- Postgraduate studies in Usul al-Fiqh (principles of Islamic jurisprudence).
- Member of the Sharia Committee of the Halal Food Council of Europe (HFCE).
- Adviser and mufti to a number of institutions across the Muslim world.
- Scholarly reviewer and editor (muhaqqiq) of books for a number of publishing houses.
- Imam, khatib and lecturer, formerly in Egypt, Malaysia and Indonesia, and currently in the United Kingdom.
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