Adding urea to moisturising creams

A question about adding urea to moisturising creams, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that synthetic urea is pure and may be used, while organic urea extracted from urine is impure unless it has been transformed, and may be used as medicine when there is no alternative. ¹

The questioner asked about the ruling on adding urea to moisturising creams. ¹

The Department answered that urea is an organic compound produced by animal and human bodies and mostly excreted in urine, and that it is now made industrially and used in animal feed, fertilisers, medicines, plastics and other products. ¹ It said synthetic urea is pure because it is made by reacting ammonia gas with carbon dioxide under high pressure, and the rule is that things are pure in principle. ¹ It said organic urea taken from urine is impure because it is mixed with it, but may be used for treatment when no pure alternative exists, citing al-Khatib al-Shirbini's Mughni al-Muhtaj on treatment with impure substances when nothing pure is available. ¹ It said that if other substances are added that remove its properties and turn it into a different substance, it is judged pure by the Hanafis, who hold that impure things become pure through transformation (istihala), citing Ibn al-Humam's Fath al-Qadir. ¹ It concluded that there is no objection to synthetic urea in cosmetic and medical preparations, nor to organic urea once transformed, and that untransformed organic urea may be used for treatment provided there is no alternative and no harm, as judged by the authorities that oversee drug manufacture. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3903, dated 28 July 2024. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.