Fatwa ID: 02687

Answered by: Maulana Tahsin Alam

Question:

I accidentally included a piece of clothing that had some blood on it together with other clothes for washing using a washing machine.

The washing machine only had one wash cycle, one rinse cycle and one spins cycle at the end ( though I noticed during the rinse cycle, not all of the soapy water was drained away before rinsing).

I only noticed that there was a remaining blood stain on the cloth after all the clothes had been dried and I was folding them.  

In this case, had I made all the clothes during the wash impure due to the blood on that single cloth?

Or was the cloth considered purified after being washed in the washing machine (even if a little blood stain remained?).

What is the view in the Shafi'i madhab? Thank you

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْم

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

-Please note our Darul Ifta specializes in giving fatwa according to the Hanafi Madhab only.-

Yes, it is permissible to wash impure clothes in a washing machine and a single impure cloth will not render the remaining clothes impure.

The Shafi’i Madhab stipulates the removal of the impurity from a cloth; as well as its traces (color, smell and taste) for an impurity that can be seen. If after washing, a smell or stain of the impurity remained which is normally hard to remove, the cloth will be considered to be pure just as in your case.[1]

And Allah SWT alone knows best.

Written by Maulana Tahsin Alam

Checked and approved Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham