Is it forbidden to use cane sugar repeatedly if the factories use burnt animal bones of unknown origin?
Bone ash and bone char (known as animal charcoal) are used in the production of white sugar to absorb colors. The bone ash used in sugar manufacturing falls into one of two categories:
1. The bone is pure, meaning it comes from an animal slaughtered according to Islamic law (dhabihah). There is no issue with this. 2. The bone is impure, such as the bone of a carcass (maytah). The correct view is that impurity is removed by burning and transformation (istiḥālah), whereby it changes into another substance like ash. This is the madhhab of the Hanafis and Malikis, and it was chosen by Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn al-Qayyim, and many contemporary scholars, as the ruling follows the name and description in existence and non-existence.
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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