Fatwa ID: 07615
Answered by Alimah Khadija Tarwala
Question:
I’m suffering from OCD about purity. At first, it was just cleaning a few splashes and then it moved to extreme washing of impure clothes. Now it has made me a very forgetful person. I keep washing my hands. Cleaning taps with the fear that what if I touched them with impure hands while opening them. It’s getting bad especially when I try to stop myself from purifying doubtful things.
Please guide me on what I should be doing in these scenarios:
1- Sometimes I get very strong doubts that I didn’t wash my hands properly and now my towel is najis and all things I touched afterward is najis. I keep changing towels because of this fear.
2- Once my son got some urine on his legs and I put him in the shower to clean and purify him. While taking shower he touched the tap and I saw him touching the floor of the tub too. I doubt that made the tap najis. I being OCD, always wash my hands after closing the shower tap. But later that day my husband used that tap and closed it with wet hands (I’m not even sure that he closed them with wet hands) and dried his hands with a towel.
I kept using that towel for a while and only after a day I realised that my husband did this so the towel might be najis. That made me anxious thinking all the things I touched later turned najis . Please guide me.
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Answer:
1. Doubts about Washing Hands and Najasah
Impurity only transfers if there is clear, visible evidence, such as a change in colour, odour, or physical impurity. If you have already washed your hands and are still unsure whether they are impure, you should ignore the doubts you have. The rule is that once an impurity is removed, the item will be considered pure. Your towels and any items you touched are still pure unless there is clear evidence of impurity on any of these items. You do not have to constantly change towels due to doubts that you have.
- Concerns About Your Son and the Tap
If your son touches the tap or the tub floor after it has been cleaned, these items will not become impure unless there is evidence that impurity was transferred. In the case of your husband, the towel he used is pure unless there is a visible impurity on it. If you are unsure whether his hands were wet or not, you should disregard these doubts. In Hanafi fiqh, your doubts do not make something impure.
The Hanafi madhhab teaches that uncertainty should not exceed certainty. This means that so long as you are not certain that impurity exists, you should consider things pure. This method will allow you to better manage your concerns.
Only Allah knows best.
Written by Alimah Khadija Tarwala.
Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah.
Darul Ifta Birmingham.
References:
الحكم في نقل النجاسة الرطبة يظهر في أن النجاسة الرطبة لا تطهر إلا عند إزالة عينها“: تحفة الملوك ج 1, ص 253
