New Delhi: Amid the raging debate over use of alcohol-based sanitizers to cleans premises of the mosques, the Darul Uloom Deoband has issued a fatwa, saying that there is no harm in using these sanitizers.

The Islamic seminary said that using alcohol-based sanitizers is the need of hour to save lives and this should be given priority over any religious beliefs.

The fatwa comes a day after call by Muslim clerics to boycott the alcohol-based sanitizers as it will make the religious place impure and the act a ‘sin’.

Maulana Shahabuddin, the General Secretary of All India Tanzeem Ulama E Islam on Thursday issued an advisory to all the mosques under its wing against the use of alcohol-based sanitizer.

Mufti Nashtar Farooqi, a prominent cleric at Dargah Aala Hazrat in Bareilly said, “Alcohol is prohibited in Islam. Muslims should not use alcohol-based sanitizers. A mosque will become impure if alcohol-based sanitizer is used for cleaning the premises. We cannot make God`s home impure. Namaaz cannot be offered at an impure place. If the mosque is made impure knowingly, it will be a sin. I have appealed to Imams of mosques and mosques’ committees to refrain from using alcohol-based sanitizer.”

In the fatwa, the famed Islamic seminary has said that today, the whole world is grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic. In such trying times, it is advisable to use the alcohol-based sanitizers to protect ourselves from the disease. It said that vegetable-alcohol based sanitizers are available in the market and therefore there is no harm in disinfecting our hands and the mosque premises with it.