Fatwa ID: 07825

Written by Alimah Khadija Tarwala

Question:

If a dry najis towel is used to stop rain from entering the house and it becomes soaking wet with rain water so much so that the water drips off when squeezing it, does everything that it touches become impure?

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

Answer:

According to the Hanafi school of thought, impurity cannot transfer unless its substance is present and capable of transferring. In the case of a towel that was initially dry and impure but later became soaked with rainwater, the rainwater will be considered pure. Rainwater does not carry impurities, nor does it make anything else impure.

Even if the towel becomes so soaked that rainwater drips off, the rainwater remains pure and does not contaminate anything else. Since rainwater is inherently pure, it will not carry the impurity from the towel unless that impurity is wet and transferable.

Given this, the rainwater absorbed by the towel remains pure, and anything it touches will not become impure unless the impurity itself is present and transferable.

Only Allah knows best.

Written by Alimah Khadija Tarwala

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah.

Darul Ifta Birmingham.

النجاسة الرطبة لا تطهر إلا عند إزالة عينها. تحفة الملوك، ج 1، ص 253

ماء المطر والسيل لو جرى على نجاسة فغلب على ظننا زوالها جاز الاستعمال وإن لم يكن هناك غاسل أصلًا. كتاب التجريد للقدوري، ج1، ص 286