Fourth: the human being. However, this is not relevant here, because using human skin is prohibited—not because it is impure, but because of its inviolability.

Thus, if someone tans the skin of a mouse or a cat, it does not become pure according to the established position of the school; however, it may be used with dry substances.

It was also said that it does become pure and may be used with both dry substances and liquids (1). According to this view, if we tan a cat’s skin, it is valid for us to make it into a small waterskin, because it has become pure.

It was also said that the hide of an animal that dies without ritual slaughter does not become pure through tanning, except when the animal is one whose meat would be lawful through ritual slaughter (2), such as camels, cattle, sheep, and the like. As for an animal whose meat cannot be rendered lawful through ritual slaughter, its hide does not become pure. This view is the stronger one, and it was the view preferred by our shaykh, Abd al-Rahman al-Sa‘di, d. 1376 AH (3). Accordingly, the hide of a cat and of any animal smaller than it in physical build does not become pure through tanning.

Thus, according to the established position of the school, the basis of the ruling is whether the animal is pure while alive. Whatever is pure while alive, its hide may be used with dry substances after it dies and is tanned, but it does not become pure. According to the second view, it becomes pure without qualification. According to the third view, it becomes pure if the animal is one whose meat would be lawful through ritual slaughter.

The stronger view is the third, because one wording of the hadith states: “Its tanning is its ritual slaughter” (4). It refers to ritual slaughter, and it is known that ritual slaughter does not