-
The hadith of Salamah ibn al-Muhabbaq shows that tanning purifies the hides of carcasses.
-
The hadith of Maimūnah indicates that tanning purifies the hide of a dead sheep, and the same ruling applies to every other animal whose meat is lawful to eat.
-
Once a hide has become pure through tanning, it may be used with dry or liquid substances, worn, spread on the ground, and put to any other lawful use. Because it now possesses financial value, every form of disposal—sale and otherwise—is likewise permissible.
-
Any agent that removes the residual moisture of the hide, improves it, and eliminates foul odor or decay may be used for tanning—whether qaradh pods, pomegranate rinds, or any other pure cleansing substance.
Scholarly disagreement
The jurists differed over whether the hide of a carcass becomes pure after tanning when the animal itself was ritually pure while alive.
Imam Aḥmad, in the well-known view of his school, holds that the hide of a dead animal is not purified by tanning, even if the animal was pure during life; it may be used only for dry goods. This view is also narrated from ʿUmar, his son Ibn ʿUmar, ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn, and ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with them.
Their evidence is the report recorded by Aḥmad and the four Sunan compilers from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUkaym al-Juhanī, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) wrote to the tribe of Juhaynah: “I had granted you a concession regarding the hides of dead animals, but when this letter of mine reaches you, do not make use of the hide or the sinew of any carcass.” Imam Aḥmad said: its chain is sound. According to this position, the hadith abrogates the earlier narrations that declared such hides pure.
The other three imams, however, maintain that any hide whose animal was pure while alive becomes pure once it is tanned, even if the animal died without proper slaughter. Al-Mughnī states that this was also reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, Ibn Masʿūd, ʿAṭāʾ, al-Ḥasan, al-Shaʿbī, al-Nakhaʿī, Qatādah, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, al-Awzāʿī, al-Layth, and al-Thawrī.