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According to Daily Mail:

"Coca-Cola and Pepsi contain minute traces of alcohol, scientific research published in France has revealed."

"They suggest that the alcohol levels are as low as 10mg in every litre, and this works out at around 0.001 per cent alcohol."

If it indeed contain 0.001 per cent alcohol - would that still count as Haraam?

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If I'm not mistaken, "intoxicants" is haraam, not alcohol itself. Traces of alcohol won't make it an intoxicant, and you'll die of diabetes long before you get drunk. But I don't know Arabic that well, so I dare not say if it's intoxicants or alcohol. – Muz Oct 12 '12 at 8:04
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Anything that has sugar in its ingredients will have minute traces of alcohol. Even bread has tiny amounts of alcohol in it. Fermenting is the natural process of certain bacteria feeding on sugar and creating alcohol as a byproduct, the only difference is that in intoxicants the fermenting is further encouraged by the brewing process. – System Down Oct 13 '12 at 0:21
   
On a side note, you don't need Coke to live a full/healthy life, and it will be no sin on you to give it up. So why not give it up? – nami Oct 15 '12 at 8:46
@nami - I'm not a fan of this approach, as it is akin to making what is halal into haram. Something we have been warned against doing. – System Down Oct 15 '12 at 20:46
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It also steps near the line of bid'ah to say that something may be forbidden when it's actually not. In a similar manner, almost every juice contains 0.1% traces of alcohol: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_by_volume – Muz Oct 19 '12 at 14:24
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3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

As you would expect, alcohol is haram, and this is clearly established by the Qur'an and Sunnah.

As for what percentage, there is a hadith that says "what is haram in large quantities is haram in small quantities" But what about really, really small quantities?

Another hadith often used in tahara states that:

If the colour, smell, or taste changes, the purity changes.

This hadith is da'eef; however, by ijmaa, all of the scholars agree to the principle outlined in this hadith.

Based on this, many scholars say that, with food, some quanity of impurity is allowed, without changing the ruling on the food. How small a quantity?

One of my teachers said "I asked shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen this question, and he told me: shari'ah doesn't come with numbers."

You can read this long explanation about the halality of Doritos, which explains this issue in excruciating detail (among other issues). The shaykh suggests a number like 0.0001% of haram will not affect the final purity.

Source: Weekend class on fiqh of food and clothing

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I believe the hadith states what intoxicates in large quantities is forbidden in small quantities - by that reasoning, since large amounts of Coke do not intoxicate, small amounts are not impermissible. However that doesn't rule out other reasons it may be impermissible. – Ansari♦ Dec 14 '12 at 4:09
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A translated fatwa from my country (Malaysia, Shafi'i):

(I'm not going to translate the word Arak here, as the english word for alcohol is used for the drink as well as the chemical. In context, the word Arak here means a drink that is used as an intoxicant.)

  1. All Arak contains alcohol. Not all alcohol is a component of Arak. Alcohol from the process of Arak creation is haraam and najis, but alcohol that is not from the process of Arak creaion is not najis, but haram to drink.

  2. Drinks that are created from the same process of Arak creation, whether it contains a little alcohol or the alcohol is removed is haraam.

  3. Drinks that are not intended to be Arak or intoxicants and not created in the same method are halal.

  4. Tapai is halal.

  5. Alcohol as a byproduct of food creation is not a najis and can be eaten.

  6. Medicine and perfumes that contain alcohol are permitted.

(Personally disagree with point 2 as other scholars have said that non-alcoholic beer and wine vinegar is halal, but just translating)

Source: http://www.e-fatwa.gov.my/fatwa-kebangsaan/alkohol-menurut-pandangan-islam

Another less formal source on this:

If alcohol is derived from grapes or dates, it will be haram and impure. If it is from anything else besides dates and grapes and it does not intoxicate directly or through a mixture, then it is permissible.

Some research turns up this point of view as a common one in other parts of the world, but this is the most formal version I could find.

Source: http://central-mosque.com/index.php/General-Fiqh/alcohol-its-kinds-usage-and-rulings.html

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I don't want to make fatwa, but as I've read in this fatwa, the Hadith by Prophet Mohammad is:"That what its many makes you drunk, its few is forbidden."

This fatwa is by IslamWeb, and they said due to the preceding Hadith, then any thing containing alcohol is forbidden even it was in a very low amount and it doesn't make you drunk. Unless due to the chemical mixture its material is changed and no more alcohol (Which is not the case in the Coke, I believe).

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