Are there things which were considered halal at the time of the Prophet, but are now considered haram due to scientific discoveries?

Question

In discussing the distinction between Fiqh and Sharia, IslamicLearningMaterials.com highlights the example of smoking:

...initially, Muslim scholars ruled that smoking was disliked because of the smell and it was imitating non-Muslims. But it wasn’t forbidden. ... However, when it was discovered that smoking cigarettes can be deadly, Muslim scholars ruled that cigarettes are forbidden in Islam.

...Shariah cannot be changed. But Fiqh can change based on new information.

In this example, we see that the fiqh ruling changed based on scientific discoveries.

(The related question about smoking here is: Is smoking allowed in Islam?, which doesn't go as far as to declare smoking forbidden, so it's possible that IslamicLearningMaterials.com is not fully accurate, but this should be irrelevant to the question.)

Question: Are there things which were considered halal at the time of the Prophet, but are now considered haram due to scientific discoveries?

Answer 1

No. If something was happening around the time of the Prophet (ﷺ) and he said it is Halal and returned to his Lord without specifying otherwise, then we will always consider that to be Halal.

Divinely revealed prohibitions and permissions do not change unless abrogated (which no longer occurs). And they did not get abrogated by 'science' but rather by Allah (ﷻ) Himself. No one else has the authority to change them. If Qur'an/Sunnah says X is Halal then it remains Halal.. and if Qur'an/Sunnah says X is Haram then it remains Haram.. regardless of science.

To add on to that, is it possible for Islam to permit something and then science to determine it is harmful? No. Because Allah (ﷻ) only forbids what is harmful and only permits what is good, per the Qur'an itself. [eg, Quran 7:157, etc]. Therefore, science never truly contradicts Islam; Islam is always right from the get-go and science always reaches the same conclusion as Islam ultimately.

Moreover, I do not think that the website is correct since I've seen it been stated otherwise. Concerning tobacco/cigarettes:

"We, our scholars and teachers, their teachers, and all the truth-seeking scholars from the leaders of the Da’wah, of the Najd and the rest of the Muslim world, from the time of its onset around 1010 AH until this day, have stated its prohibition, all basing their evidence from the principles of the religion and observation" - Compilation of Fatawa.

The kinds of rulings that often change over time are those concerning culture/customs. You may refer to IslamQA and Islamweb for more on this topic. But principles of the religion and clearly defined rulings from Islamic texts do not change.

Answer 2

Are there things which were considered halal at the time of the Prophet, but are now consider haram due to scientific discoveries?

The religion of Allah is complete and what ever that was revealed will take effect until the day of qiyaamah. What Allah and his messenger made halal cannont be made haram and what Allah and his messenger made haram cannot be made halal no matter what.

“This day (the day of arafa), I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion” [al-Maa’idah 5:3].

With regard to the example quoted in your question, The ruling on smoking that it is haram was a ruling which was derived by scholars based on evidences from the Quran. (refer following link - https://islamqa.info/en/110) because it is not stated directly in Quran or hadeeth. This does not have anything to do with altering of initial permissions and prohibitions made by Allah and his messenger. because in this case , none of the laws of Allah has been changed or altered.

If the fact that smoking was not forbidden by scholars initially is true, then it is due to their own inaccuracy or lack of awareness. Now there is a generally accepted consensus among the scholars and the ummah that smoking is haram.