14- FILTH (NAJASA)
FILTH (NAJASA)
Filth means:
(1) Urine
(2) Excrement
(3) Blood
(4) Pus
(5) Vomit
(6) Wine
(7) any liquid intoxicant (including, for the Shafi’i school, anything containing alcohol such as cologne and other cosmetics, though some major Hanafi scholars of this century, including Muhammad Bakhit al-Muti ‘i of Egypt and Bad] ai-Din al-Hasani of Damascus, have given formal legal opinions that they are pure, (tahir) because they are not produced or intended as intoxicants.(Other scholars hold they are not pure, but their use is excusable to the extent ,strictly demanded by necessity.) While it is religiously more precautionary to treat them as filth, the dispensation exists when there is need, such as for postoperative patients who are unable for some time after their surgery to wash away the alcohol used to sterilize sutures, And Allah knows best.)
(As for solid intoxicants, they are not filth, though they are unlawful to take, eat, or drink)
(8) Dogs and pigs, or their offspring
(9) wady and madhy.
(10) Slaughtered animals that (even when slaughtered) may not be eaten by Muslims)
(11) un-slaughtered dead animals other than aquatic life, locusts, or humans (which are all pure, even when dead, though amphibious life is not considered aquatic, and is filth when dead)
(12) The milk of animals (other than human) that may not be eaten
(13) The hair of un-slaughtered dead animals
(14) And the hair of animals (other than human) that may not be eaten, when separated from them during their life (or after their death. As for before it is separated from them, the hair is the same as the particular animal, and all animals are pure during their life except dogs and swine).
(In the Hanafi school, the hair of an un-slaughtered dead animal (other than swine), its bones, nails (hoofs), horns, rennet, and all parts unimbued with life while it was alive (A: including its ivory) are pure (tahir). That which is separated from a living animal is considered as if from the un-slaughtered dead of that animal (Hashiya radd al-muhtar ‘ala al-Durr al-mukhtar sharh Tanwir al-absar (y47), 1.206-7).)
Rennet (a solidifying substance used in cheese-making) is pure if taken from a slaughtered suckling lamb or kid that has eaten nothing except milk.
That which comes from the mouth of a sleeping person is impure if from the stomach, but pure if from the saliva ducts.
The following are pure:
(1) Seminal fluid that has reached the stages of gestation in the womb, becoming like a blood clot and then becoming flesh
(2) The moisture (mucus) of a woman’s private parts (as long as it remains inside the area that need not be washed in the purificatory bath, end), though if it exits, it is impure)
(3) The eggs of anything
(4) The milk, fur, wool, or feathers of all animals that may be eaten, provided they are separated from the animal while living or after properly slaughtered
(5) Human milk, male sperm, and female sexual fluid,
No form of filth can become pure, except:
(1) Wine that becomes vinegar
(2) The hide of an un-slaughtered dead animal that is tanned
(3) new animate life that comes from filth (0: such as worms that grow in carrion)
(4) (and for the Hanafis, filth which is transformed [molecularly changed] into a new substance, such as a pig becoming soap, etc. (alHadiyya al-‘Ala’iyya (y4), 54».
Wine that becomes vinegar without anything having been introduced into it is pure, as are the sides of the container it touched when it splashed or boiled. But if anything was introduced into the wine before it became vinegar, then turning to vinegar does not purify it. (In the Hanafi School it is considered pure whether or not anything has been introduced into it.)
Tanning means removing from a hide all excess blood, fat, hair, and so forth by using an acrid substance, even if impure. Other measures such as using salt, earth, or sunlight, are insufficient. Water need not be used while tanning, though the resultant hide is considered like a garment affected with filth, in that it must be washed with purifying water before it is considered pure. Hides of dogs or swine cannot be purified by tanning. Any hair that remains after tanning has not been made pure, though a little is excusable.
Something that becomes impure by contact (def: below) with something from dogs or swine does not become pure except by being washed seven times, one of which (recommended not to be the last) must be with purifying earth mixed with purifying water, and it must reach all of the affected area. One may not substitute something else like soap or glasswort in place of earth.
(The contact referred to is restricted, in the Shafi’i school, to contamination by traces of moisture from dogs or swine, whether saliva, urine, anything moist from them, or any of their dry parts that have become moist (Mughni almuhtaj ila ma’rifa rna’ani alfaz al-Minhaj(y73), 1.83). (If something dry such as the animal’s breath or hair touches one’s person, it need only be brushed away.) In the Maliki school, every living animal is physically pure, even dogs and swine (al-Fiqh ‘ala al-madhahib al-arba’a (y66), 1.11) (A: and they consider the above sevenfold washing as merely a sunna). While more precautionary to follow the Shafi’i school, the dispensation exists for those who have difficulty in preventing contamination from dogs, provided their prayer with its prerequisites is considered valid in the Maliki school (w14.1(6)). And Allah knows best.)
The urine of a baby boy who has fed on nothing but human milk can be purified from clothes by sprinkling enough water on the spot to wet most of it, though it need not flow over it. The urine of a baby girl must be washed away as an adult’s is.
WASHING AWAY FILTH
As for kinds of filth that are “without substance” (i.e. without discernible characteristic (najasa hukmiyya) such as a drop of dry urine on a garment that cannot be seen). It is sufficient (to purify it) that water flow over it.
But if it is a substance (with discernible characteristic (najasa ‘ayniyya», it is obligatory to remove all taste of it, even if difficult, and to remove both colour and odor if not difficult. If the odour alone is difficult to remove. Or the colour alone, then the fact that one of these two remains does not affect a spot’s purity, though if both the odour and colour of the filth remain in the spot, it is not considered pure.
When using less than 2l6liters of water to purify a spot affected by filth, it is obligatory that the water flow over it (and it may not be simply immersed in the water, though this would be permissible with more than 216 litres), but is not obligatory to wring it out. After one purifies it, it is recommended to wash it a second and third time.
When the ground (or floor, or carpet) is affected with liquid filth (like wine or urine), it is enough to drench the place with water and is not necessary that the filth sink into the ground. If the effects of sun, fire, or wind remove the traces of the filth, the ground is still not pure until one drenches it with water.
Liquids other than water, such as vinegar or milk, cannot be purified after they become affected with filth. But if a solid is affected. Such as shortening, one discards the filth that fell into it and the shortening around it, and the remainder is pure.
Water used to wash away filth is impure when:
(1) It changes
(2) Its weight increases
(3) (Or if neither of the above have occurred, but some trace (i.e. an inexcusable amount) of filth remains on the place to be purified)
-but if none of the above occurs, then it is not impure (i.e. then the water is pure but not purifying to other things); though if it amounts to (or is added to until it amounts to) 216 or more litres, then it is purifying. If Jess, it is considered the same as the spot it washed: if the spot is pure (i.e. an inexcusable trace does not remain) then the water is pure, but if the spot is still impure, then the water is impure.
(In the Hanafi school, if a garment’s damp spot of filth, whose quantity is too slight to wring out any drops, touches another dry, pure garment, the latter does not become impure (Maraqi al-falah sharh Nur al-idah (y126), 31).)
(Source: The reliance of the traveller, revised edition, Edited and Translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller)
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