Are Rotting Grapes Impure? Can We Eat Them after Expiry Date?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch
Question
When grapes start to rot, are they considered najis? Secondly, if grapes are past their ‘Best before’ date by 3 or 4 days but seem fine, can they still be consumed?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate
Grapes are Pure
Grapes are pure and cannot become impure unless they become wine. Grapes turn into wine through fermentation, which can take a very long time. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah]
Edible
If the grapes have passed their expiry date and still appear edible, eating them is permissible and even recommended, lest one fall into wastefulness (israf).
Eating them will only be impermissible if they have reached a point where one is reasonably sure that they make fall sick by eating them. [Nahlawi, al-Durar al-Mubaha]
Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.
