At what alcohol percentage is a volume of alcoholic seasoning/condiment considered haram?

Question

This question is more specifically aimed at condiments that may have small percentages of alcohol (<1% alcohol) such as soy sauce and some types of mirin.

An example of mirin STYLE seasoning that contains less than 1% alcohol

If you don't know what mirin is, it is a sweet alcoholic condiment. Normally, it would almost certainly be haram due to its potential to intoxicate and the fact that it is essentially rice wine.

The above link, however, is something of a synthetic seasoning that replicates mirin. This would be excellent for use though there is a potential problem: It still has less than 1% alcohol.

I do know that there are so many foods and drinks that actually contain an extremely small amount of alcohol as it would be nearly impossible to completely stop all fermentation from happening.

So my question is: Would the above example be permissible to use in cooking AND what volume of alcohol is considered impermissible?

Of course, do try to provide evidence to back up your answer.

EDIT: This sort of condiment is almost always cooked with so I suspect the alcohol present would most likely be cooked off.

Answer 1

TL;DR: The Qur'an and Sunnah didn't come with percentages, so rulings are based around the hadith:

It was narrated from 'Amir bin Sa'd, from his father, that: The Prophet [SAW] forbade a small amount of whatever intoxicates in large amounts. [grade: hasan] (sunnah.com)

In this way, 0.5% was declared insufficient to render a drink an intoxicant in some fatawa (IslamToday.net, IslamWeb, DarulIfta), but not all fatawa agree (AskImam.org, Islam.ru).

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In my answer to Haraam or Halal? - Coke and Pepsi contain 0.001% Alcohol, I surveyed online fatawa which were nearly unanimous in declaring: if a substance is incapable of intoxicating even in large quantities, then it is not haram (insofar as to being an intoxicant).

One example is Islam Q&A, who tend to be stricter than other fatawa, who write: "...if something is mixed with alcohol but the alcohol is a small amount and does not have any effect, then it is halaal..." [in the context of non-alcoholic beer].

We know intoxicants are haram from the Qur'an (2:219, 5:90-91). But importantly, this applies to the whole item, not its constituent parts. In the context of non-alcoholic beer, the research committee of IslamToday.net write:

Sheikh Salman al-Oadah astutely observed: "The percentage of alcohol mentioned has no effect on the ruling. The ruling applies to the drink itself taken as a whole and not to its composition."

They continue:

For example, a person weighing a mere 54 kg (120 lbs) would have to consume at least twenty-three 330 ml bottles of non-alcoholic beer at 0.5% alcohol per volume... to even begin to feel intoxicated by the alcohol that it contains. ... Hence, there are no grounds to prohibit this drink. And Allah knows best.

This gives some percentage figure for those erring on the side of caution, which we should be: Leave that which makes you doubt for that which does not make you doubt. (sunnah.com).

Finally, if the condiment is an intoxicant, it's best to avoid it altogether, as per the hadith "Wine is cursed from ten angles..." (sunnah.com):

The Fataawa of the Permanent Committee reads, “If the beverage that contains a percentage of alcohol intoxicates in large quantities, then it is unlawful to consume any quantity of it, large or small. It is also deemed prohibited to sell or buy such a beverage and it is obligatory to dispose of it because it is considered khamr (intoxicant). However, if the consumption of a large amount of such a beverage does not intoxicate, then it is permissible to sell, buy, and consume it ...” (IslamWeb)

Answer 2

There is no permissible amount of alcohol , Not even a drop. Moreover, drinking any kind of liquor is not the only haram thing : selling , buying, carrying , serving, even browsing in a liquor store is Haram. There are tons of evidences , but all evidences I know are all in Arabic, Hadith and Quran. I will try to find some in English for you, and till that you can Google "Islam and liquor".

Regards.