Fatwa ID: 08746

 

 

Answered by Alimah Aisha Qureshi

 

Question:

 

I am someone who deals with OCD. A few days ago, I had to stay in the car for a long time and had a very strong urge to urinate and was in pain. However, I held it in u till I arrived at home and then went to the washroom. But when I went to the washroom, I saw some urine drops on my underwear. I only changed my pants and underwear but didn’t pay attention to the seat which I sat on. Today when I sat there on the same seat in the car. My clothes (pants) were wet because I had done wudu before sitting on the seat.

 

 

Now as I sit on that same seat (the one I am doubting has urine impurity), I am feeling that the seat may have been impure from before and now since my clothes are damp/wet the impurity has transferred to my current clothes and if I touch my clothes around that area (the back of the clothes), then my hands will also become impure or any one area that I sit on. What is the correct thing to assume? Should I clean the seat and my clothes and is every other area which I sat on and my hands impure now?

 

 

 

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

 

 

Answer:

 

As someone dealing with OCD, particularly around issues of cleanliness and purity, it can be extremely difficult to distinguish between genuine concern and baseless doubts. The situation you are in involved in of possible urine contamination on a car seat has you worried, including whether impurity transferred from old stains to wet clothes, and then possibly to the hands and other surfaces.

 

If a person is in a state of purity, that purity remains unless there is certain evidence of impurity. Merely doubting whether the seat was impure is not sufficient to declare it impure.

 

Impurity must be visible, smelly, or otherwise confirmed. If there’s only a possibility or suspicion, you are to treat the surface as pure. Therefore, following baseless doubts, leads to hardship and deviation from the intended balance of the Shariah. Islam does not burden a person with what is not clear or proven.

 

There is no need to clean the car seat, wash the clothes, or purify any other area or part of the body. The initial change of clothes was sufficient, and no certainty of impurity exists on the car seat or clothing afterward. Islam does not require one to act on doubts especially when they originate from OCD. Instead, it commands us to live by certainty, to avoid hardship, and to trust that Allah does not ask from us more than we can bear. Therefore, it is correct to assume everything remains pure, and no further purification is necessary.

 

 

 

References:

 

اليقين لا يزول بالشك

Qaawaid al Fiqhiya

 

 قَالَ حَفِظْتُ مِنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏ “‏ دَعْ مَا يَرِيبُكَ إِلَى مَا لاَ يَرِيبُكَ فَإِنَّ الصِّدْقَ طُمَأْنِينَةٌ وَإِنَّ الْكَذِبَ رِيبَةٌ 

Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2518

 

 

Only Allah knows best.

Written by Alimah Aisha Qureshi

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham