Question: Is dirt (unclean substances other than the ones Islam declares to be impure) treated as najis (impure)?
ANSWER
Laundry that is not contaminated by najasat (things that Islam prescribes as impure, such as blood, wine, urine, etc.) may be washed to remove dirt, but dirt itself is not considered najis. Washing it once is enough. If it is not washed at all, it will not be considered impure anyway.

There is not a prescribed number of washings for laundry contaminated by najasat. Once will be enough if it is removed by washing once. If the najasat is removed, existence of its color and odor is not important. Washing it again with hot soapy water or detergent is not necessary.

Question: Some people who do not perform five daily salats are not bothered about hygiene. They do not wash their hands after going to the toilet. Then they put their hands on household goods, doorknobs, chairs, and armchairs. If we touch where they touched, will our hands become impure?
ANSWER
No, they will not become impure.

Question: I think that the floor is impure, and I have two tissues available. Can I perform salat after laying them out on the floor? If yes, where should I lay them out?
ANSWER
The floor is not treated as impure based on pure supposition. It is assumed to be clean by default unless one knows that it is impure.

If one knows for certain that the floor is impure and there is no other clean place for salat, at least the places where one’s two feet step and where one puts one’s head must be clean. If the part of the tissue where one puts one’s head is clean, no matter whether the tissue is small or not, one’s salat will be valid even if its other parts are impure.

There are many scholars who say that it is not essential that the parts on which hands and knees put be clean. According to these scholars, when those parts where one steps and puts one’s head on the cloth spread on the ground are clean, the salat will be accepted even if there is najasat on its other parts.

Question: I often go abroad. The carpets in the hotels seem very clean. Is it permissible to perform salat at such places on which there is no trace of any qaba (strong) najasat?
ANSWER
It is permissible. However, it is better, though not essential, to spread something like a hankie on the place where the head is put for sajda.

Question: My kids sometimes urinate on the carpets. If we, when the urine dries, walk on these carpets with our wet feet after wudu’, will the impurity be transferred to our feet?
ANSWER
No, it will not be transferred to your feet.

Question: Does releasing gas necessitate washing the rear organ? If one’s underpants are wet when one releases gas, is it necessary to wash them?
ANSWER
If one, after washing one’s private parts with water in the toilet, passes gas when one’s rear organ is wet, it is recommended that one should wash it again. However, if one releases gas when one’s rear organ is dry, it is bid’at (innovation) to wash it. Releasing gas does not make one’s wet underpants impure, so it is not necessary to wash them.

Question: I heard that a martyr is buried in his bloody clothes. Is blood not impure? Is there any kind of blood that is considered clean?
ANSWER
A martyr’s blood as long as it remains on him is considered clean. Blood that exists in and does not flow out of edible meat, livers, hearts, and spleens; blood of fish, lice, fleas, and bed bugs are all clean. In other words, the presence of such kinds of blood does not affect one’s salat. (Se’adet-i Ebediyye)

Question: Are madhi (secretion discharged when one has a lustful thought, contact, or glance) and wadi (secretion discharged after urination) impure in the Shafi’i Madhhab, too?
ANSWER
Yes, they are impure. Only mani (semen) is clean in the Shafi’i Madhhab.

Question: Is mud impure?
ANSWER
Mud is not impure. The mud that gets onto one’s clothes outdoors does not affect the validity of salat.

Question: I have gotten sunburn. Is the peeling skin that falls off considered impure (najis)?
ANSWER
It is not impure because it does not contain blood and nerves.

Question: On the labels of some pipe tobacco products made in the USA is written “Washed with wine.” Are they considered impure? Is it permissible to perform salat when one has them in one’s pocket?
ANSWER
If the statement “Washed with wine” is written on their labels, they are considered impure. One cannot perform salat when one has them in one’s pocket. If there is not such a statement on their labels, they are not treated as impure.

Question: Are toxicant and poisonous herbs, such as opium and marijuana, considered impure (najis)? Is it permissible to perform salat when one has such things in one’s pocket?
ANSWER
Taking opium and marijuana for intoxication is haram, but such substances are not impure because they are herbs. It is permissible to perform salat when one has such things in one’s pocket. (Se’adet-i Ebediyye)

Question: If our clothes are stained with blood that exists in and does not flow out of meat and such meat byproducts as livers, hearts, and spleens, can we perform salat in these clothes without washing them?
ANSWER
Such kinds of blood are not considered impure. (Maraqi al-falah)

Question: When a butcher is cutting meat, is what gets onto his clothes considered impure? Is it permissible to grind meat on which there is blood?
ANSWER
Blood that exists on and does not flow out of meat, livers, and spleens is clean. When an animal is slaughtered, the blood in its meat is clean. But what gets onto you when you cut meat is impure (najis). Since the blood that is in the meat and does not get onto you is considered clean, there is no harm in passing this meat through a mincing machine to make it minced meat.

Question: Can one perform salat when one has a spleen in one’s pocket?
ANSWER
Blood that exists in and does not flow out of edible meat, livers, hearts, and spleens is clean. For this reason, one can perform salat when one has a spleen in one’s pocket. When one’s clothes are stained with such kinds of blood, they do not make one’s clothes impure. (Maraqi al-falah)

Question: If I step with my socks on drops of water that fell on the floor during wudu’, will they become impure when they get wet?
ANSWER
No, they will not become impure.

Question: Does touching a dog break wudu’ in the madhhabs of Hanafi and Shafi’i? Is the saliva and hair of it considered impure?
ANSWER
Touching a dog does not break one’s wudu’ in the Hanafi Madhhab. The dog’s saliva is impure, but its hair is clean. When a dog shakes water off its body after it comes into contact with water or gets wet in the rain, drops of water that get onto one’s clothes are not impure.

In the Shafi’i Madhhab, touching a dog does not nullify one’s wudu’. If a wet dog touches one’s garment or its saliva gets onto one’s garment, it is necessary to wash that place with clean water seven times, one of which must be with muddy water.

Question: If I, after washing my private parts in the toilet, stand up without wiping them dry and the wetness is transferred to my underpants, will my underpants become impure?
ANSWER
No, they will not become impure. It is mustahab to dry them with a cloth or toilet paper. There is no harm if one does not dry them at all. If there is not a cloth or toilet paper available, one can wipe them dry with only one’s hand.

Question: Is it permissible to perform salat at a place where a cat wanders around?
ANSWER
A cat is pure. One can perform salat at a place where it wandered around.

Question: Is the hide of a snake or a pig considered clean when it is tanned?
ANSWER
The hide of a snake or a pig does not become pure even when it is tanned. One is not allowed to perform salat with a wallet, belt, bag, or garment made of these hides. (Halabi, Hidaya, Hindiyya, Mizan-ul-kubra, Al-Fiqh 'Ala al-Madhahib al-Arba'ah, Se’adet-i Ebediyye)

The hide of a pig, snake, mouse, or the skin of a human does not become pure after tanning. (Radd-ul-mukhtar)

The hide of a pig does not become pure after tanning. (Nisab-ul fiqh, Targhib-us-salat, Ni’mat-i Islam)

In the Shafi’i Madhhab, the hide of a dog, just like that of a pig, does not become pure by tanning. (Misbah-un-najat)

If a scholar says that so-and-so is sunnat while another scholar says that it is makruh, it is treated as makruh. Even though there are scholars who say that the hides of a snake and a pig are clean, the ruling is based on the words of those scholars who say that they are impure.

Question: We have a drum that we use for storing kerosene. We washed it and filled it with water. The smell and taste of the water has changed. Can we perform wudu’ with this water?
ANSWER
Kerosene is not impure (najis), so you can perform wudu’ with that water.

Question: I am a shoemaker. Is it permissible for me to make snakeskin shoes for non-Muslims?
ANSWER
It is permissible, but you must not make snakeskin shoes for Muslims who perform salat because snakeskin is impure.

Question: Is it permissible to perform salat at a place where a dog has wandered around?
ANSWER
The place where a dog steps is not considered impure. Even if it steps in mud, the mud will not become impure.

Question: Is the vomit of a breastfeeding baby impure?
ANSWER
Yes, it is qaba (strong) najasat (impurity, filth). (Se’adet-i Ebediyye)

Question: With regard to oral sex, it is said that seminal fluid is impure and swallowing it is sinful. In my opinion this is very wrong. The clean milk that comes out of the breast of a woman, the saliva in the mouth of a human, or sweat that is emitted from the body is produced from the food we eat. Similarly, semen is produced from the same clean foods, and a baby is created from this pure semen. How can it be said that semen is impure?
ANSWER
This is a very odd and wrong comparison. Just as semen, which is released through the urethra, is produced from clean foods, so a human’s excreta are produced from the same clean foods. Can urine and excrement be drunk and eaten?

The claim that seminal fluid is clean simply because a baby is created from it is similar to the teachings of Hurufis. They say: “My wife is lawful to me. Then how can my daughter be unlawful to me? My daughter came out of the body of my wife, who is lawful to me. If my wife is lawful to me, what came out of her body is necessarily lawful to me.”

In Islam, neither your comparison nor ours is taken as the basis for rulings. What is taken as the basis is only what credible fiqh books say. It is written in the fiqh books, “Seminal fluid cannot be eaten or drunk” (Radd-ul mukhtar).

The semen that gets onto one’s garment does not affect the validity of salat in the Shafi’i Madhhab. However, licking and swallowing semen is haram in the Shafi’i Madhhab, too. One can perform salat with a bottle of nitric acid or of another type of poison when it is in one’s pocket because it is not impure. That something is not impure does not necessarily mean that it is not haram to consume it.

Question: A piece of meat that was put on my lower back to relieve the pain has gone bad and become infested with worms. Is it permissible to perform salat with this rotten meat wrapped around my waist?
ANSWER
Meat does not become impure when it goes bad and becomes infested with worms. It does not affect the validity of one’s salat. (İslam Ahlakı)

Question: Is it permissible to perform salat when there is a lock of hair of a man or a woman in one’s pocket? When a human or an animal dies, will his or its hair become impure?
ANSWER
When a human dies, he or she becomes impure according to the Hanafi Madhhab, but a corpse’s hair, bones, nerves, and teeth are clean in the Hanafi Madhhab. A human, when he or she dies, does not become impure according to the other three madhhabs.

The nerves, bones, horns, manes, hair, and nails of an animal, with the exception of a pig, that is not slaughtered in the Islamic manner (that is, it died of itself) are pure. If one performs salat when one has a lock of human hair in one’s pocket, one’s salat will be valid because the hair of a human is clean. (Halabi)

It is permissible for one to perform salat when one has human teeth in one’s pocket because a tooth is clean. The hair and bones of a dead animal are clean, too. (Hindiyya)