Welcome to an IlmQuest presentation. Basic Fiqh, Purification and Salah. Presented by Yasir Qadhi.
Part 1. Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. Inna alhamdulillahi na'hmaduhu wa nasta'eenuhu wa nasta'aghfiruhu. Wa na'udhu billahi min shururi anfusina wa min sayyiaati a'malina. Man yahdihi allahu falamu dhillah lah.
Wa man yudhilhu falahaadiyalah. Wa ash'hadu an la ilaha illallah wahdahu la shariqa lah. wa ashadu anna muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluh Amma ba'd Now before we begin, we have to introduce a few basic concepts.
Of these concepts is, what is fiqh? What is the definition of fiqh? Fiqh is defined to be a discussion of the legal regulations of Islam along with their specific evidences.
This is fiqh. A discussion of the legal regulations of Islam along with their specific evidences. So it is a discussion of the legal regulations, it is not a discussion of theology. Legal regulations only.
What is permitted, what is not permitted, what is allowed, what is encouraged, it is not a discussion of theology. It is not a discussion of tafsir, exegesis. It is not a discussion of hadith.
It is discussion purely of legal regulations of Islam. along with their specific evidences. In other words, where did we get this from? What is the evidence of what we are saying?
This is fiqh. Now linguistically, fiqh means to understand. Purely linguistically, means to understand.
And when used in the Qur'an and Sunnah, it has this meaning usually, the meaning of understanding. When it is used in the Qur'an, for example, لَعَلَّهُمْ يَفْقَهُونَ So that they may understand. Likewise, the Prophet ﷺ said, whoever Allah wishes to bless, He gives him...
A fiqh of the religion, meaning understanding of the religion. Man yuridillahu bihi khayran yufaqihu fi d-deen. He gives him fiqh of the religion.
It doesn't just mean this one science of fiqh. It means a general understanding of the religion. However, when it's used by the scholars of Islam, they have categorized Islam into many different sciences.
The science of fiqh, the science of tafsir, the science of hadith, the science of usul al-fiqh. So the science of fiqh has been defined to be the discussion of the legal regulations of Islam. along with the specific evidences. What is the importance of fiqh?
I think the importance of fiqh is self-evident because fiqh covers all matters of one's life. A person cannot do an act except that fiqh has told him what is the status of that act. Is it permissible?
Is it forbidden? Is it obligatory on him to do? And in fact, fiqh is an essential prerequisite. Knowledge of fiqh, knowing fiqh is an essential prerequisite for any act. You cannot pray without knowing some fiqh.
You cannot give zakah without knowing some fiqh. You do not even know there is something called prayer or zakah except through fiqh. So every Muslim knows a little bit of fiqh, or else he would not be a Muslim. The very fact that you have to pray five times a day, this is a part of fiqh. How do you pray the basics of prayer, this is fiqh as well.
However, what we're wanting to do is to go to a basic level, because most people do not even know what is obligatory on them to know of fiqh. Every Muslim is required to know, for example, what are the basic pillars of salah. But most of them don't, they couldn't list them for you.
Every Muslim is required to know the basic pillars of wudu, of fasting, of what breaks the wudu, of what breaks the prayer, of what breaks the fasting. Yet not every Muslim can list them for you. We're talking about at a very basic level, without the evidences.
Not every Muslim is required to know the evidences. But they are required to know, at least, how to pray. Likewise, every person must know the fiqh regarding his life and his field.
So the engineer has to know fiqh related to his engineering, if there is such a thing. The doctor needs to know the fiqh regarding his speciality. Is he allowed to do this surgery? Is he allowed to do this transplant?
Is this particular methodology or is this particular operation allowed or not? Genetic research, for example. If that is his speciality, he needs to find out.
And if he doesn't know, it is obligatory on him to ask. Allah says in the Quran, فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ Ask the people of knowledge if you don't know. Ask the people of knowledge if you don't know.
If you don't know it, you are responsible for asking. And this is another mistake many Muslims fall into. They think if I'm ignorant, Allah will not punish me. No.
If you are ignorant, you are obliged to learn to lift that ignorance. There are people around you that know. And you know those people, they don't know you. If you are required to know something, then you are required to ask the people of knowledge about that thing.
So there is a basic minimum level of fiqh, which every single Muslim must know. And the sad state of affairs is that the vast majority of Muslims do not know this basic minimum. Therefore the purpose of this class is to introduce the average Muslim to this basic minimum that he is required to know of fiqh.
Now before we move on again, we have to define the types of legal acts. The types of legal acts may be divided into two simple categories. Those acts which are due solely to Allah. These are acts of worship we call them, ibadat. We only do them for the sake of Allah.
It is not possible to do these acts except with Allah in mind. This is the first category. And the second category are those acts which are due to Allah and to mankind.
We call them mu'amilat. Mu'amilat, which means interactions. So an example of the first category is Salah. When you pray, who do you pray for? Allah Azza wa Jal, only.
It's a right of Allah and only a right of Allah. An example of a second type is, for example, marriage. When you marry, then the Muslim has Allah in mind, he wants to please Allah. But there are also laws and regulations interacting between him and other human beings as well. What are some of the differences between these two types of acts?
The acts of worship, the ibadat, as we said, are a sole right of Allah. Therefore, the implication of this is that whoever does these acts, intending to please other than Allah, has committed an act of shirk. Prayer, fasting, zakah, any right, hajj, any right that is solely due to Allah. If in your heart you desire to please other than Allah, you have committed an act of shirk. Why?
Because you have given something which is Allah's right to... other than Allah. When you pray, you must pray for Allah. If you pray because you want to impress someone, or you want someone else's praise, or you're scared of someone, this is a type of shirk.
If you fast, if you give zakah, if you read the Quran, if you do any act of worship, and in your heart you have the intention of trying to please other than Allah, then you have committed an act of shirk. How about mu'amalat? How about actions which are interaction with other human beings as well?
What if you do an act and you do not have Allah in mind, you want to please someone else, which is an act of mu'mala. Is this in and of itself shirk? For example, marriage.
Most of mankind marries, many Muslims marry and they don't think of Allah Azawajal. Is this a type of shirk? The answer is no, it is not a type of shirk.
Because it is not a sole right of Allah. It is not a sole right of Allah. However, If a person does this act with the intention of pleasing Allah, then it becomes an act of worship. So any act which is a mu'amala, if you do it with Allah in mind and intending to please Allah, it becomes an act of worship. But in and of itself, it is not an act of worship.
A business transaction. You go to the grocery store, you buy food. You give money, you take some food. This in and of itself, you are neither rewarded nor sinful. As long as the money is halal, what you buy is halal.
You are neither rewarded or sinful. Now suppose that you go intending to please Allah. How would you please Allah? By buying groceries.
Who can answer me? You're feeding your family. Or you want to feed yourself even. With the intention, O Allah, I am feeding myself so that I can be strong, so that I can worship you, so that I can feed my family.
You have Allah in your mind, you're conscious of Allah. This act, does it become an act of worship that you're rewarded for? Yes, it does. So much so that the Prophet even said that when one of you satisfies his sexual desire with his spouse, he is rewarded for that. Only if Allah is in your mind.
That, O Allah, I am doing this act because You have made it permissible for me, and I wish to get rid of this feeling that I have in a permissible way. So if you approach this act with this in mind, then even this act becomes rewarding for you. But the sad fact of the matter is that most Muslims, and of course none of the non-Muslims, has Allah in his mind when he does these acts. It is really the mutaqi, the mu'min, who thinks of Allah in every act that he does.
When he eats, when he sleeps, when he awakes from his bed, when he goes to work, he is always thinking of Allah. Therefore, every act of his becomes an act of worship. So this is the first difference between an ibadah and a mu'amalah, which is that an ibadah cannot be done except with Allah in mind.
If it is done for other than Allah, it becomes an act of shirk. As for a mu'amalah, such as business transactions, such as marriage, such as raising your family, things which human beings do amongst themselves. In and of itself, it is if you do it without Allah in mind.
You do not get any reward, but it could be transformed into an act of worship if you have the intention of pleasing Allah Azza wa Jalla. The second difference between an ibadah and a mu'amala, the second difference is that an ibadah, an act of worship, must be found in the Qur'an and Sunnah. You cannot invent an act of worship.
You cannot come forth 14 centuries later and say, I want to worship Allah by praying six times, or by fasting in December, or some other... weird perverted concept, which is known as bid'ah or innovation. You're not allowed to do that.
Every act of worship must be based directly in the Qur'an and Sunnah. So you must prove your act of worship to be permissible by quoting Qur'an and Sunnah. Is this the case with mu'amalat? No. You can invent mu'amalat as much as you want.
You can invent technology. You can do whatever you want with the dunya. You can invent business transactions, types of partnership, ownership. Do whatever you want.
And if someone wishes to prohibit this from you, he has to bring evidence from the Qur'an and Sunnah. So the tables are turned. You can summarize this point by saying, every type of worship is forbidden, except that which is found in the Qur'an and Sunnah.
And every type of mu'amala, or interaction, is permissible, except that which is forbidden in the Qur'an and Sunnah. So the general rule with regards to worship, and types of worship, and acts of worship, everything is haram. You cannot invent an act of worship unless it's found in the Qur'an and Sunnah.
And the general rule with regards to daily life and interaction, if someone comes and says, you're not allowed to wear that shirt, you say, what are you talking about? He says, no, it's not found in the Qur'an and Sunnah that anyone wore a shirt. You say, no, this is a mu'amala. This is an action in daily interaction of our worldly life.
You have to prove to me that this is haram. I don't have to prove it's permissible. Now the same person comes and he starts worshipping Allah. by let's say celebrating a certain day of the year. Now the same person comes and says, this is an act of shirk or an act of bid'ah.
Here you cannot choose the same argument, prove it to me. No, you have to prove yourself and prove that this is an act of worship that is permissible for you to do. You see the difference? Is it clear now?
Is that an act of ibadah has to be found in the Qur'an and Sunnah to be permissible. Whereas an act of mu'mala has to be forbidden in the Qur'an and Sunnah in order for it to be prohibited. It's the opposite of the two.
So we gave some examples of Ibadat, Salah, Zakah, Fasting, Hajj. Anything which you do regarding Salah, regarding Zakah, regarding Fasting, regarding Hajj, you have to prove it from the Qur'an and Sunnah. You cannot just fast the way you want to fast, or perform Hajj the way you want to perform the Hajj.
You have to prove it from the Qur'an and the Sunnah. And examples of Mu'amalat are everything to do with economics, the economical system. And this is especially in our times, we're finding so many different transactions, so many different...
ways of dealing with money. The very concept of money did not exist. Currency we're talking, paper money.
It did not exist. The ulema had to come forth and extract laws regarding that. In the old days, what did they used to use for money?
Gold and silver, real gold and silver. The concept of paper currency was meaningless. There was no such thing as paper currency, right?
Everything, no one came and said this is haram because the asr is that it is halal. The general rule is that it is halal unless and until proven otherwise. The concept of... all of these different types of business transactions, business partnerships, ownerships.
The general rule, everything is halal, unless and until proven otherwise. Likewise, issues of marriage and divorce, of other things as well, is that in general, these type of things are mu'amalat. In general, there are certain rules regarding them which are ibadat that have to be performed, but in general, they are mu'amalat. So whatever a person wishes to do with his wife, for example, no one can say, you're allowed to do this, you're not allowed to do this.
You want to go here with your family, you want to do like this. This is all permissible unless and until proven otherwise. With that, we will now continue with an overview of the subject matter of fiqh and the arrangement which it is structured. What are we going to talk about and why are we going to talk about it in that order?
In general, the books of fiqh start off with ibadat before mu'amalat. Obviously, because ibadat are more important. And because...
they occupy a central characteristic in the life of every single Muslim. What is the most important act of worship? The Salah. So all the books of Fiqh start off with Salah, but there is something which is a prerequisite to Salah, and that is Tahara or purification, Wudu, and objects related to that.
Therefore, the books of Fiqh start off talking about purification. Because the purification, like the Prophet ﷺ said, is the key to Salah. So after purification, they then move on to salah, and then to zakah, and then to fasting, and then to hajj. Then they move on to, now these are the five arkaan or the four arkaan minus the shahada.
Then they move on to jihad usually because jihad is the most noble pillar after these five. And then they move on to pure mu'amalat, business transactions, buying and selling, trading, contracts, leasing, partnerships, other types of transactions, interest, the types of interest, the categories of interest, what qualifies as interest, what doesn't qualify as interest, the giving of prizes, the giving of gifts even. Even gifts is discussed in fiqh.
How can you give gifts? What is considered a gift? What is a gift?
Endowments, waqf, all of these monetary matters. Then they move on to wills, last wills and testaments, inheritance laws. After this, they move on to marriage and divorce.
Discussion of the types of marriages, the types of divorces, the types of annulments of the marriage. And then they move on to food and drink, which is hunting and the rules of hunting. Permissible foods, impermissible foods, permissible drinks, impermissible drinks. and then they go to other minor topics such as giving oaths, giving vows, and finally the books of fiqh conclude with punishments or hudud. This is the general layout in most of the books of fiqh.
Now each one is slightly different than the other, but this is the general layout of these books. Now obviously we're not going to discuss all of these topics because there's simply too many to cover in the amount of sessions we have. So our purpose and structure for this class is a basic introductory level class. to the more practical chapters of fiqh. We will not discuss all the chapters of fiqh.
We're going to skip over some chapters simply because they're not going to be practical to us. For example, hajj. Right now, even if I went over the fiqh of hajj, everyone will forget it until their time comes for going for hajj. Likewise, the economical system of Islam, we will skip over it simply because the economical system of our times is so different than that found in the classical books of fiqh that that it is really a class in and of itself. Likewise, we're going to skip over the punishments of Islam because that is an Islamic state enforces punishments.
We do not enforce Islamic punishments or the hudud. So we're going to skip over certain chapters which are not of practical benefit right now to most of us. Also, we're going to go directly to the Qur'an and Sunnah.
Everything I quote you, I'll try to bring an evidence from the Qur'an and Sunnah directly. And we're going to go into a surface level. We're not going to go into too much detail.
Because this is not the place to do so in an introductory level class. An important reminder, as everyone knows living in this country, fiqh is a topic concerning which there is a lot of ikhtilaf. There is a lot of difference of opinion regarding.
There are so many madhhabs, so many fiqhs, so many opinions. You cannot say a single opinion except that someone will say, well, I heard something else. If you say this is sunnah, someone will say, no, this is bid'ah. No, this is haram.
No, this is wajib. And there's so many madhhabs as we know, so many scholars saying so many different things. So I would like to remind you that at this level, just learn one opinion, so that you know what fiqh is talking about.
Don't get involved with multiple opinions and multiple evidences. Most of the people are not qualified to discuss this. Allah Azza wa Jal requires the layman to blindly follow the scholar.
فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ Ask the people of knowledge if they do not know. At this level, Learn the basics of fiqh. We're gonna go over it at a surface level.
I'm giving you one opinion. If in the future course of your life you have the opportunity to study more, Alhamdulillah. Otherwise, if a person comes to you in the masjid and you've studied with me for example that this act is sunnah, and he comes and say, no, this is wajib.
Don't argue with him and say, I heard it's sunnah. Well, that's my opinion, but someone else might have another opinion. Fiqh is a vibrant field, the Sahaba themselves differed.
Ibn Mas'ud had an opinion, Ibn Abbas had another opinion, Aisha might have yet a third opinion. The Sahaba themselves differed over fiqh. So, Be gentle when it comes to fiqh.
This is one opinion out of many. And I'm giving you what opinion I believe is the strongest based on the Qur'an and Sunnah, but other people might have different opinions as well. So, if someone comes and says, this is this, this is that, this is my opinion. If you have the knowledge and the background to do more, alhamdulillah, go for it.
Otherwise, don't try to enforce it on other people. This is what I'm trying to say. If someone comes and says, I've heard something else, you say, well alhamdulillah, that's your opinion, this is another opinion. In matters of fiqh, now in matters of aqeedah this cannot apply because an aqeedah is black and white.
In theology it's black and white. In sunnah and bida'ah it's black and white. But in matters of fiqh, then there's a lot of ikhtilaf.
Our own ulama of ahlus sunnah wa jama'ah have differed from the time of the companions until our times. So we have to be mature, we have to realize that this ikhtilaf, this difference has always existed and it always will exist. So do not try to enforce your particular opinion or in this case my particular opinion on another person.
They have another scholar, they have another person they're going to, so that is their prerogative. And do not allow this to affect your brotherhood with that person. We'll move on now to... The second introduction, and that is regarding the types of acts. An act, any act that you do, is categorized in and of itself in one of five legal categories.
Any act that a person does is categorized in one of five legal categories. The first category is wajib, also called fard. For practical purposes, they are synonymous.
An act can be wajib. What does it mean to be wajib? It means that it is obligatory to do this act.
The one who does it is rewarded, and the one who leaves it is sinful. This is the definition of wajib. The one who does a wajib is rewarded, and the one who leaves it is sinful. So when I say it is wajib to give zakah, that should be a B by the way, wajib.
When I say it is wajib to give zakah, This means that the one who gives zakah is rewarded, and the one who doesn't give it is punished by Allah Azza wa Jal, or is under threat of punishment. And the word fard is synonymous to wajib. Some ulama use the word fard, you know, zakah is fard, hajj is fard on those who can afford it, fasting is fard for the capable Muslim, and some ulama use the word wajib. This is the first of the five categories.
The second category is sunnah, or also mustahab. Both of these terms are used interchangeably. Sunnah or mustahab means you are rewarded if you do it, but you are not sinful if you leave it. You are rewarded if you do it, but you are not sinful if you leave it.
So it is different from wajib in that it is not obligatory to do. So if I say now that it is sunnah to pray two rak'ahs before dhuhr. You now understand what sunnah means.
To pray Dhuhr is wajib, is fard. To pray the two rak'ahs before Dhuhr is sunnah. Because if you leave those two, you are not going to be sinful.
You can leave a sunnah for your entire life and not be sinful for that. But obviously if you do it, then you are rewarded greatly. Now obviously between themselves, sunnahs are also within or sub-categorized. There's a strongly encouraged sunnah, there's an average sunnah, there's a sunnah which is nafl, which the Prophet sometimes would do.
But all of it could be categorized simply as sunnah. Meaning if you do it, you're rewarded. If you leave it, you're not sinful. Some sunnahs are more important than others, but all sunnahs, if you leave them, you are not sinful.
So for example, the two rak'ahs of Fajr, they are strong, strong, strong sunnah. The two rak'ahs before Fajr, right? The Prophet ﷺ never left them.
Out of all of the sunnah prayers, this is the strongest sunnah. Still, they do not reach the level of wajib. Okay, so this is the second of the five categories.
The third of the five categories is that of Mubah. Mubah means permissibility. And it is defined to be a person is neither rewarded nor is he sinful.
Mubah is an act regarding which a person is neither rewarded nor does he incur any sin. So if a person says, what does Islam say? Should I become a chemical engineer or a civil engineer? We say it doesn't matter, both are Mubah.
You're not going to be rewarded per se in one of these two categories. Another person asks, you know, should I wear this clothes or that clothes? This color clothes or that color clothes? Again, we will say it is mubah.
Whatever you do, the sharia has allowed you to do it. You are not sinful nor are you rewarded for any of these two acts. This is mubah meaning permissible. The fourth of the five categories is makrooh.
And this is the opposite of sunnah and is defined to be an act which... If a person does, he is not sinful, but if he avoids intentionally, he is rewarded. If a person does this act, makroo act, he will not incur any sin. But if he avoids it intentionally, purposely he doesn't do this act to please Allah, he will be rewarded for it. So for example, if a person enters a restroom with his right foot, we know that you're supposed to enter the restroom with your left.
If he enters with his right, has he committed a sin? No, he has committed an act which is makrooh. If he were to avoid this, he would be rewarded.
But by doing this, he is not sinful. This is the fourth of the fifth category, makrooh. And the last is haram. And everybody knows what haram means. And the haram act is one which, if you do it, you are sinful.
And if you avoid it to please Allah, then you are rewarded. If you avoid it with the intention of pleasing Allah, you are rewarded for that. And obviously the haram acts are many, everyone knows many of them, drinking alcohol or... You know taking interest or doing zina all of these things are haram any act That a person does any person does can be put very cleanly into one of these five categories And this is the beauty of the Sharia There is not a single acts except that the Sharia has categorized it for you and has told you this act regarding this act now The general rule is that all acts all mu'ammalaat will be mubah All Mu'amalat will be Mubah. Unless and until evidence exists to move them to another category.
You follow me? Remember we talked about Ibadat and Mu'amalat? So all acts of Mu'amalat, all acts of daily interaction, will automatically be given the status of Mubah.
In order to raise it to Sunnah, or to lower it to Makrooh, or to raise it to Wajib, or to lower it to Haram, you have to bring evidence to the contrary. We now move on to the next category that we need to know before we talk about, before we actually enter the subject of fiqh, and that is an act in relationship to another act. The first categorization, this is a separate categorization, the first categorization was with regard to an act in of itself.
You're looking at an act individually, not in relationship to other acts. Now, we can also categorize acts in relationship to another act. You'll understand what I'm saying with the examples.
If an act is related to another act, that relationship may be one of a number of types of relationships. One of these types of relationships is a shart, a precondition. A shart is defined to be an act which is a necessary prerequisite to another act.
the second act will not be acceptable to Allah until this first act has been performed. This is called a shart relationship. We're talking about two acts which have a relationship with each other.
The first categorization, an act in and of itself can be categorized. Now if you want to look at two acts and their relationship with each other, there can be a separate type of categorization scheme. For example, let me give you an example to help you clarify. Wudu, in and of itself, the act of doing wudu.
Which of the five categories does it come into? In general it comes under fard, you have to do wudu. But wudu in relationship to salah, it becomes a shard.
You see an act in and of itself can be categorized in these five categories. Now an act in relationship to another act has other categorization schemes. And we're going to talk about some of them here now. So, and we have to know these terms. Again, we are going over these terms because you cannot study fiqh without them.
These are very basic terms. In reality, this science is called Usul-ul-Fiqh. And it in and of itself is a long extended science.
We're not going into that. I'm just giving you some tidbits that you can use or you need to use if you want to study Fiqh. You cannot study Fiqh without knowing these terms.
Because these terms are used all the time. We're going to talk about the Shart or the Shurut of Salah. If you don't know the meaning of Shart, how can you understand this? The Shurut of Salah are those acts which are necessary preconditions.
If you don't have those Shurut, Allah will not accept your Salah. Okay, so this, the shart relationship is a necessary precondition. Precondition, it has to be before the act.
This is the key here. The shart must exist before the act for which it is a shart of. The wudu must exist before the salah and not the other way around. This is the first type of relationship we'll discuss. The second type is rukun.
The second type is rukun. A rukun is... An essential component of an act.
If you have not done this act, the entire act will not be accepted. The difference between rukun and shart is that shart occurs before an act, whereas rukun is an actual part of that act. Let me give you an example. Sajdah, prostrating. Sajdah is a rukun of salah.
So a rukun, if you like, is within the actual act. It is a component of that act, but it is an essential component. Without it, the act does not exist. If you do not do a rukun, that act does not exist. It is not accepted to Allah.
What is the difference between sharta and rukun? The sharta occurs before the act, whereas the rukun is an integral part of the act. So we say wudu is a sharta of salah. And we say prostration is a rukun of salah.
If a person prays and he doesn't prostrate. He doesn't fall into sajdah and he's capable of doing so. Obviously we're not talking about the exceptional cases, that's a separate thing. In general, the capable person, he must fall into sajdah. If he says, I don't feel like doing sajdah, I'll just do ruku.
Is his act acceptable to Allah? Is salah acceptable? No, because it is a rukun.
Another categorization scheme or another factor is that called mubtil, which means a negator, an act which negates another act. So this act, if you do it, it disqualifies, it cancels another act. This is the relationship between these two.
For example, if someone talks during the prayer for no reason, what happens to his prayer? It is cancelled, right? It is abrogated. The prayer finishes.
If someone starts having conversation with someone else in the prayer, we're not talking about again a life-threatening emergency or saving someone, screaming out to him, no. We're talking about just in general, you have a conversation with someone else. This breaks your salah, right?
Likewise, if someone goes to the restroom and he had wudu before, that act breaks his wudu. This is called mubtih, a factor which breaks it. There's one more which I did not include here. It actually should occur under rukun. There's one more.
If you want to write this, this is wajib as well. Wajib. wajib, this is a bit confusing because it depends which context you use it in. If you talk about a wajib, in and of itself it comes into the first categorization scheme.
But if you talk about a wajib and a rukun, comparing between the two, then a wajib is an act which is a necessary component of another act but can be made up. Whereas a rukun cannot be made up. It is a necessary component. But if a person leaves a wajib, he can make it up. Whereas the rukun, if he leaves it, that cannot be made up.
So this is a brief introduction to fiqh, some of the terms we are going to need before we jump into the actual study of fiqh. We had mentioned that the first topic that all the books of fiqh discuss, or almost all the books of fiqh discuss, is the topic of purification. This is because without purification you cannot pray, and prayer is the most important act of fiqh. So in order to go chronologically, the books of fiqh start off with...
Purification. What are we gonna discuss in this topic or book of purification? The first thing that we're gonna discuss is something called the types of water.
What do you mean the types of water and why are we talking about water? Well, obviously the basis of purification is what? Water.
How do you purify yourself? With water. How do you do wudu? With water. How do you do ghusud?
With water. How do you purify your clothes? With water.
So we need to discuss... What types of water you can use? Can you use any fluid, any liquid?
Can you use water that is dirty? And remember now, in those days, you didn't used to get clean, refined water that easily, right? You would have to go to lakes, you would have to go to wells, and they'll sometimes be polluted, dirty. So what qualifies as water that can be used to purify yourself with? So we discussed the types of water.
That then leads us to containers and utensils. What are you gonna put that water in? What are you allowed to use to store water? Again, remember, it's not like, you know, in those days they would have to store water, right?
You're not gonna turn on the tap. You're gonna put it in a bucket, you're gonna store it in containers. What is it allowed, what is allowed to use as a container of water?
And then, as a side topic, we'll discuss utensils as well because it comes under the same category. What are you allowed to eat and drink in? After this, we move on to the etiquettes of the restroom.
How... What should one do in the restroom? How should one clean oneself? How should one clean najas or impure substances on your body and on your clothes? This then leads us to wudu.
Again, we're going chronologically if you think about it. You take the water out of the well, you store it, then you need to use the restroom, and then you clean yourself, and then you perform wudu. The books of fiqh were set out in this chronological order.
This is how you would need to use your fiqh as soon as you wake up, okay? So you then move on to wudu. How do you do wudu?
What are... after you do wudu, what are the factors that nullify your wudu? This is under wudu as well.
What are the factors that nullify your wudu? Also the topic of wiping over the socks as well, because that comes under wudu. All of this is discussed in wudu.
This then leads us to ghusl. Okay, washing. Janaba, when do you need to take a ghusl? Why do you need to take a ghusl? How do you take ghusl?
What are the factors that you need to take ghusl for? An entire bath. Because obviously the ghusl is a greater form of wudu. And what if you have no water? That leads us to tayammum.
Most of the time you have water, that is wudu and ghusl. If you don't have water, if you're traveling, if you can't choose water for medical condition, that leads you to tayammum. And then the last thing that the scholars discuss in... This chapter of purification is personal hygiene, general hygiene of the human body, and also feminine hygiene.
By feminine hygiene we mean the types of blood and menstrual blood and other types of blood which we'll discuss. That's specific feminine hygiene. So hygiene can be divided into general hygiene, that the human body, male and female, how does he take care of himself, and also general or specific feminine hygiene. So this is an overview of fiqh. Sorry.
An overview of tahara, overview of purification. This is what we're going to discuss in the next few hours inshaAllah. We start off with the types of water. Water in and of itself, in its original form, is pure.
What do I mean in its original form? I mean water that Allah Azza wa Jal sends down from the skies, is found in streams, is found in rivers. is found in lakes, reservoirs, and is found in oceans as well. The pure state of water. Allah says in the Quran, وَأَنزَلْنَا مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَا أَنْطَهُرَ We have revealed or sent down from the skies pure water.
And subhanAllah, scientifically we know that. We know that rainwater is... How pure is it? 99.1?
Does anyone know the figure? I think it's 99.9% pure. One of the purest forms of natural water is rainwater.
And Allah says in the Quran, we have revealed from the skies or sent down from the skies, pure water. And obviously this is the basis of rivers and lakes and streams and oceans as well. The Prophet was asked about ocean water.
Now ocean water is salty, it's not like the river, the pure water. But because it is in its natural form and it's mixed only with salt, the Sahaba said, are we allowed to perform wudu with it? The Prophet said, sea water is pure. huwa attahooru ma'uhu walhillu maytatu Sea water is pure. and the dead animals of the ocean are also permissible for you to eat.
So water in its original form is pure. Meaning anything that you call water, you turn the tap on and that fluid that comes down, you call it water. The water that you drink, the water that you use for cooking, all of this is pure water. If you mix pure water with another substance, then... As long as it still retains the name of water, it remains pure.
If you mix water with a pure substance, you have a big reservoir, leaves fall into it, dust falls into it. Sometimes even small animals go into it. Other things might fall into it. As long as it still retains the name of water, it is still called pure water and you can perform wudu, you can eat or drink, you can do whatever you want with that water.
As long as it is a pure substance. If you continue to add this pure substance to this water, and it becomes another fluid, then it loses its status of being pure water. And now you cannot perform wudu with that water. You cannot perform wudu with that water. Let me give you an example which will clear up...
Exactly what I'm talking about. Any type of juice that is in powder form like tang or like kool-aid or something. This powder in and of itself, is it pure?
Yes, it's pure. You have a bucket of water, you add let's say a spoon of this powder into this bucket. Is this pure water still?
One spoon in a bucket. What is your response? It's still water.
You're still gonna call it water. You add one spoon of tang in a bucket of water, yeah, it might change a little bit. But that's a pure substance. And the amount of change is so little, you're still gonna call it water.
So you can do wudu with that water, you can do ghusl with that water, and obviously you can eat and drink it. Now suppose you add two cups of tang to this bucket, and it becomes, you know, yellowish tang, and it tastes like tang and it smells like tang. Would you call it water or do you call it now juice?
You call it juice. So this fluid cannot be used to perform wudu, nor can you do ghusl with it. But you can eat and drink it, why?
Because you added a pure substance. So it becomes a fluid which you can ingest, but you cannot use for purification. So it changes its pure status when you add a pure substance to it, when it changes its name of water. Now don't ask me when this occurs. Again, there is no specific cut-off point.
If you add three spoons, it does, and if you add four, it does. It goes back to your common sense. you look at that substance, would you call it water?
Is this water? If it is, you can use it for purification. Or would you call it juice, would you call it Pepsi? Again, when you go to the restaurant and you get the Pepsi from the restaurant, what do they do?
They mix water with a chemical, right? Sometimes the machine isn't working and it comes out very diluted, more water than Pepsi. That is water, because the amount of mixture is very little.
So you would still call it water, therefore you can do ghusl and wudu with that. But if you add that pure substance, until it changes its name, you wouldn't call it water anymore, that's where you cannot do wudu with it, okay? So let's give you a practical example. You turn your tap on, and you find a rusty colored substance coming out of it, which is very common, right?
It's water with some iron residue in it. Can you do wudu with this water or not? No, why not? The color's changed.
It's not called water. You wouldn't call that substance water. You would still call it water.
It's just discolored water. It doesn't matter if the change is noticeable. When you add, this is the key. Please pay attention, brothers and sisters.
When you add a pure substance to water, it doesn't matter if the change is noticeable or not. Suppose you have a bucket and you add, let's say, 6 spoons of tank. Now in my opinion, 6 spoons of tank will cause a noticeable change.
The water will slightly discolor. But it's not gonna be so noticeable that it changes from water to tank. Still that water is pure.
And you can use it for wudu and ghusr. So when you turn the tap on and you have a rusty colored water flowing, the residue, the iron residue, that water is still water, it's just discolored water. You haven't changed the name of that substance from water to another fluid.
The key is it has been mixed with a pure substance. If it's mixed with a pure substance, it doesn't matter if the change is perceptible or not. Only when you stop calling it water can you stop doing wudu with it. Now suppose you mix it with an...
impure substance urine for example a dog comes and urinates in a Specific amount of water now if the change is perceived perceptible it becomes impure So if the color or the taste or the smell of that water changes it becomes impure So suppose you have a set amount of water. Okay, and some impure substance falls into it like blood, like vomit, like pus, like an animal coming in, urinating or defecating in that water. And it changes the characteristics, either the smell or the color or the taste.
You can notice the difference. That water becomes impure. And when it becomes impure, you cannot even eat or drink it. So you cannot use it for yourself, for wudu, for ghusl, nor can you use it to wash your clothes. nor can you use it to eat or drink.
So please don't get confused, it's very easy. You have water, you add a pure substance, when can you start performing wudu and ghusl? When you can't call it water anymore. It doesn't matter if the change is perceptible or not. But when it does transform into the other fluid, can you use it to eat and drink?
Yes, because the substance is pure. When you have an impure substance and you add it to water, What is the cut-off point now? Any perceptible change.
Any perceptible change. If an animal urinates, the slightest yellowness that you see in the water, you cannot use that water anymore. Completely. Neither for yourself, nor to ingest, nor to wash your clothes, that water has become impure.
So you can say that fluids are of three types. Fluids. The first is water that purifies and can be ingested. It purifies you and you can use it to eat and drink. And this is anything that you call water.
Whether it's colored, whether it's murky. And realize, for the majority of time mankind has been around, pure water like this has been very rare. You go to the well, you're not gonna pull out something as clean as this. There's gonna be some muddy residue, some type of leaves or this or that.
Aisha used to say, we used to eat and drink the two black things. Meaning water and dates. Why did she call water black?
Because of the sand. That doesn't make it impure, you still call it water. So the first type of fluid is that which is pure in and of itself, and that which retains or can be ingested, and this is anything you call water. The second type of fluid is that which is pure in and of itself, but does not purify you.
Any fluid which is pure but doesn't purify you, like tang, like Pepsi, like milk, like orange juice, anything. You cannot use it to perform wudu because it's not water. But because...
Its essence is pure, you can eat it, drink it, cook it, you know, do whatever you want with it. But you cannot use it for purification. The second type of fluid... It's pure in and of itself, but it does not purify you.
And the third type is an impure fluid, and this occurs when you add an impure substance to water, and one of its characteristics changes. Now, as a side point, large quantities of water always retain their purity. Why?
Because no matter how much you add, you will never be able to change that large quantity of water. Can you ever change the ocean water? You cannot make it neches. That is why in many countries the sewer system, it leaks into the ocean. They allow it to go into the ocean.
Because no matter what you do, the ocean will never change, it's too large. Likewise, a large lake, it will never become impure, because you will not be able to add enough substances to that. So, large quantities of water, such as seawater, such as large lakes, such as even flowing water like rivers, they do not become impure. Flowing water, why? Because it doesn't retain the impurity.
If someone were to throw an impure substance into a river, then because the water is gushing forward and going forward, when you come to that river, you want it washed, you are allowed to do so because the impurities have been washed away. So these are the types of water. Regarding containers and utensils, what do you store water in? Everything is allowed unless prohibited.
This sounds familiar. Why is this the case? Everyone should know the answer to this. Why is everything allowed unless prohibited?
It's mubah, it's a part of mu'amalat. So what is prohibited? Prohibited gold and silver utensils. The Prophet ﷺ said that do not eat or drink in gold or silver utensils, do not eat in gold and silver cups, or drink off of gold and silver plates, because this is for them in this world and for us in the hereafter.
Who is them? Who is them? The kuffar. And for us in the hereafter.
So gold and silver utensils are prohibited to use. However, there is an exception made to small amounts of silver. And that's why I put silver plated here, because this is what we use in our time.
And the reason for this is because one of the containers of the Prophet ﷺ broke, metal containers, so he took a small amount of silver, and he plugged that hole to make the container usable again. So from this we can extract that very small amounts of silver are permissible. Therefore, in my opinion, silver-plated utensils are permissible. How much amount of silver goes into a silver-plated container?
How thick is it? It's literally a few molecules thick. When you silver-plate a fork or a spoon, it's literally a few molecules thick. This is not the same as a silver utensil. Notice, please, silver utensil haram.
When you go to the market, you can buy gold, you can buy silver. You can buy gold plated, you can buy silver plated, and you can buy copper, bronze, whatever else there is. Okay, everything else obviously halal. Gold, silver, in and of itself haram.
Gold plated haram. Silver plated, inshallah this is halal because of this hadith where the Prophet ﷺ took a small amount of silver and he made his container usable again. Another thing which is prohibited is the hides of impermissible animals. Now... How does this apply to us?
We don't have hides that we store water in, but we do have hides that we wear, right? We wear leather. What type of leather is allowed?
What type of leather is prohibited? The leather that is allowed is the leather of animals which we are allowed to eat, such as cows. Calf leather is allowed, okay?
And the leathers which are prohibited are the leathers of the animals which we are not allowed to eat, such as pigs and... Crocodiles. Crocodile, I'm being practical and realistic that these are the type of leather that are available in the market. You find crocodile leather as well. We're not allowed to eat crocodiles.
So that type of leather, it is not permitted for us to wear. It is najis, it is impure. Likewise, pig leather, pig skin, it is impure. So the hides of impermissible animals are prohibited.
Now in those days, they would store water and food in them. In our times, we don't do that anymore but we still wear them. So we need to know the ruling in order to know the clothes that we wear. If we buy certain types of shoes, certain types of belts, certain types of wallets, any type of item that we buy that is leather, we need to look at the type of leather. If it is of an animal that is permissible to eat, then we are allowed to use it.
And the evidence for this is the Prophet ﷺ passed by a sheep. And he said, and it was a dead sheep. It was rotting, a decayed carcass of a sheep.
So he asked the companions, why do you not benefit from its wool and its skin? They said, Ya Rasulullah, it's a dead animal. Now you cannot eat the meat of a dead animal, right?
It died a natural death. You cannot eat the meat of a dead animal. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, I'm not telling you about the meat, the wool and the skin.
If you tan it, you purify it. The tanning of this animal or the skin of the animal is equivalent to the dhabiha or the slaughtering of it. So this is the hadith. Tanning it is the equivalent to slaughtering it. So from this we extract that any animal that you can slaughter, if you tan its hide, it becomes permissible.
And any animal that you cannot slaughter, if you tan its hide, it doesn't become permissible. Okay, so the hides of permissible animals are permissible for us and the hides of impermissible animals are impermissible for us. As for the utensils of non-Muslims, this is in general allowed.
The companions of a certain district came to the Prophet ﷺ and they said, Ya Rasulullah, we live in a country where there's Jews and Christians, are we allowed to eat of their utensils? He said, if you do not find anything else, then wash it and eat in it. Okay.
So in our case, if we go to their restaurants, for example, this is what they offer us, and we know that they wash the utensils, therefore it is allowed to eat and drink of the utensils. Obviously, if we know for a fact that there is some najis or there is some wine on it, then we're not allowed to do so. But when we go to the restaurants, realistically speaking, they wash it themselves, so we don't have to worry about that. The next aspect or the next topic is the etiquettes of the restroom.
The first etiquette is that the Prophet ﷺ would find a secluded, a private area. He would walk away from the companions. He would in fact go sometimes a mile or two away from them. And he would find some type of covering.
So he would go to a private area. And then he would do, say the dhikr before entering the restroom. And what is the dhikr of the restroom?
Bismillah, Allahumma, inni a'udhu bika minal khubuthi wal khabaith. Allahumma, Bismillah, Allahumma. O Allah, I seek your refuge in male and female jinns.
Because we know that jinns in general live in the restrooms. They like to live in these dirty places. So he would seek Allah's refuge from them.
And then he would enter with his left foot. He would enter with his left foot. And he would face away from the qibla. He would not turn his face to the qibla, nor would he turn his back towards the qibla, out of respect for it.
So you do not turn your body in the direction of the qibla, nor do you turn your back in the direction of the qibla. You turn away from the qibla. And this is the case even if you are within a confined area.
It doesn't matter. The respect of the qibla is shown at all places. Even if you're within your house, for example, try your best to turn away from the qibla.
Abu Ayyub al-Ansari narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said that, do not turn your face to the Qibla or turn your back towards it. And then he said, we went to Syria, and we found that they had constructed the toilets in the direction of the Qibla. So we would turn ourselves as much as we could away from the Qibla and seek Allah's refuge.
In other words, they were forced to use those toilets, they would still not face the Qibla. They would turn themselves to the left or right as much as they could, and then they would seek Allah's refuge for even that. So we should try to turn away from the qibla and to avoid turning our backs towards it as well. It is after we finish urination or defecation, it is permissible to wash or to wipe.
And if we wipe, then the wiping must be a minimum of three times. The wiping must be a minimum of three times. The Prophet ﷺ, once went to the restroom and he had his servant with him.
He said, bring me three stones. So from this we conclude that the minimum amount of wiping is three. Now we are allowed to use toilet paper in our times or anything which is pure and allowed in and of itself.
Obviously you're also allowed to use water. The best thing though is to combine between the two. That means to wipe and then to wash.
This is the best thing to do. The most pure to do. Why? Because this avoids your hand from touching najis directly.
If you wipe until the area is clean, and then you wash with water, this is the best thing to do. Allah Azza wa Jal says in the Qur'an that He praises the people of Quba, and He says that they are a people who are pure. They like to purify themselves. So they were asked why Allah revealed this concerning them. They said the only thing we do that is special is that we wash ourselves with water as well.
Now in those times they would not wash themselves with water that much. Because obviously water was scarce. So most of the people would only wipe. And even the Prophet ﷺ, many times he would only wipe. And many times he would wash as well.
Likewise the Sahaba, most of the time they would only wipe. And sometimes they would use water. This is because water was scarce in their time at that place.
Okay, and this is something many of us don't know, is that we think that it is wajib to use water. No, nobody says it's wajib to use water. If we're in a public restroom and we do not have access to water, it is absolutely permissible to use only toilet paper. No sin, not makrooh at all.
As long as we clean the area, and the scholars state that it is defined to be clean when the wipe is taken without any trace left on it. If you take the toilet paper and there's no traces of the neges, this is clean. So the minimum is three times, but if after the third time there's still something left, you need to use more until there is no trace left, and you should use it an odd number of times, three, five, seven, nine, as many as is needed to clean the area. And we said the best is to combine between the two, and also we are prohibited from using the right hand, all of us know this. When Salman al-Farsi was asked regarding the etiquettes of the restroom, he said the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam forbade us.
from using the right hand in washing ourselves. Because the right hand is the hand of nobility. You give it to shake, you eat with it.
And the left hand, you do other things with it, like cleaning yourself with it. And you do not eat or drink with it. Because shaitan eats and drinks with the left hand.
You do not shake people's hands with it. So you use the left hand to wash yourself, and you avoid using the right hand. It is prohibited to use impure substances, such as animal dung, or other najas.
Also substances which are sacred or noble such as food. You cannot choose food to clean yourself. Because why?
It is a noble thing, you should respect it. Likewise anything which has writing on it. Anything which has any type of writing.
Because writing in and of itself is a blessing from Allah. So to use any paper which has writing is not good to do, it is makrooh to do. So you should use pure substances that are clean. If you use an impure substance, this is not allowed. The Prophet ﷺ once told Anas to bring him three stones.
Anas said, I could not find three stones. I bought him two stones and animal dung. So he took the animal dung away and he said, this is impure, this is unclean, give me something else. This shows you that you cannot use impure substances. Likewise, talking is disliked in the restroom.
Once the Prophet ﷺ was using the restroom at some distance away, one of the companions came and he said, As-salamu alaykum to him. Okay, so the Prophet did not respond because he was at that point using the restroom when he finished and he Did then he responded to him likewise the Prophet said that Allah hates that two people go to the restroom Exposing their awlas in front of each other and talking to each other Allah hates this deal Okay, and this is unfortunately very common in this society where in the urination stalls the men will talk to each other while they're urinating This goes against adab this goes against etiquette One should spend the minimum amount of time in the restroom because this is the place of evil jinn, of shayateen. And this also, by the way, as a side point, this custom in this country of having a reading rack in the restroom where you sit there and you read, this again is an evil habit. Because you should not do this noble act of reading while you're doing this act.
Also, you should not stay in the restroom longer than you need. You should do your act and then go out immediately. Don't sit there for hours reading a novel like these people do.
So the act of putting, the very, you know, custom of putting a reading rack in the restroom, it should be avoided as well. The question obviously arises for the men, is it allowed to urinate while standing or not? Aisha narrated, whoever tells you that the Prophet ﷺ urinated while standing has told a lie.
Okay? She said this. Yet we find another companion by the name of Jabir narrating that the Prophet ﷺ went to the dump, the junkyard.
dump of a certain tribe, and he urinated while standing up. So we have two hadith here, how do we reconcile them? Very easy. Aisha is narrating what she saw.
She never saw the Prophet ﷺ urinate while standing up. Whereas Jabir is narrating what he saw. Is that once or twice or a few times he did this.
So we combine between these two narrations. And whenever you can combine between the Qur'an and Sunnah without forming a contradiction, you do so. You combine between these two, and you say the general rule is that the man should sit. Why is this? Because it is better for his awrah, he doesn't expose his awrah.
Because it is better that the najis does not come splashing back on him as well, so he should sit down. But if he is forced to stand, then as long as he takes precautions, it is permissible. Now the Prophet ﷺ went to the junkyard, the dump, meaning all of these najis things were there.
So if he sat down, it is possible that he will allow these najis substances to touch his body or clothing. So in order to avoid that, he remains standing. and he urinated while standing.
Therefore, if we're in a similar situation where it is more cleaner or better for us to urinate while standing, we're allowed to do so, but we have to be sure that The splashes of urine do not go back on us. Why? Because the Prophet ﷺ once passed by two graves and he said that the people in these graves are being punished and they are not being punished for severe matters, rather they are severe matters.
One of them would not protect himself from his urine. In other words, he trivialized it. He didn't care about his urine. So because of this, he was punished.
Because when you do not care about your urine, it splashes back on you, then your prayer is not accepted. Likewise, if you do not clean yourself after urination, your prayer is not accepted as well. Here, one last thing.
Many people go to extremes with regards to cleaning themselves after urination. They might shake their private part or they might even jump up and down or something to remove the last traces. And this is very common, unfortunately. This is going to extremes. This is going to extremes.
You wipe yourself until there is no drops left. And then, to remove any doubts, just splash some water on your private part. Such that later on if you think that you feel some moistness, think that it is the water instead of urine. Because in the men's private part, as we know there's some drops of urine sometimes remaining.
So what you do is, you allow the urination to stop, and you wipe it three times so that there are no traces left, or more if necessary. If you wipe three times and then some urine drops out, you need to wipe again, obviously, until it remains dry. And then in order to remove any doubts of shaitan, you splash water on your private parts as well. And then if you feel any moistness after that, then you can assume that it is the moistness of the water and not of the urine. These are the etiquettes of the restroom.
Obviously when you exit as well, you should say the dhikr as well. What is the dhikr when you exit the restroom? Ghafranaka. May Allah forgive me.
And the reason you say this is just as this evil has been taken away from my body, I wish or I pray that Allah also removes my sins from my body as well. This also then leads us to cleaning najas. Cleaning najis outside of the restroom, meaning on your clothes or in your house or any other place. How do you clean najis? Before we say how we clean najis, we better define what a najis substance is.
Najis substance is number one, urine. Number two, pre-seminal fluid. What is pre-seminal fluid?
It is the fluid that a man or a woman... release from their private parts in the state of sexual excitedness Not in the state of orgasm. This is pre-seminal Okay, both the man and the woman when they are sexually excited they release a certain fluid This fluid is nudges the pre-seminal fluid. Okay, and that number three stool The third nudges is stool itself.
Obviously number four flowing blood Flowing blood. Notice I say flowing blood, which means a small amount of blood which does not flow is not najis. The Quran clearly says, اَوْدَمًا مَسْفُوحًا Flowing blood. So if someone has a small nosebleed or a prick and some blood oozes out, this is not najis.
This is not najis. Only if there's a gush of blood, flowing blood, this is what counts as najis. That was number what? Number four, right?
Number five, vomit. Now here the scholars state that if a person has just eaten and then he vomits immediately after, this is not najis. Because the food is still in its original form. But if he has eaten and he vomits a few hours afterwards and the food has been transformed, then this is counted as najis. Why do they differentiate?
They say that as soon as... that food that you eat obviously is pure, right? So if it enters your stomach, within a few minutes it comes out again, it has still not been transformed into najis.
But if it comes out after a few hours, where it loses its status of being food and it becomes the digestible material, then this qualifies as najis as well. Number, what is this now? Number seven.
Number six, pus. Pus is najis as well. Number seven, dead animals.
Any large dead animal, large dead animal is a najis substance as well. Number eight, saliva of dog and any predatory animal. Notice I said saliva, the dog.
The body of the dog when it's alive is not najas. So if your neighbor's dog happens to brush you and it doesn't lick you, you do not have to do anything. Nothing.
The hair and the wool and the whatever of the dog is not najas. It is his saliva. If it licks you, that is what is najas.
Number what now? Number nine, the pig. The pig is najas in its entirety. Anything to do with the pig is najas. And number ten, Fluid intoxicants.
Fluid intoxicants. Can someone give me an example of a fluid intoxicant? Beer.
Right? Wine, vodka, whatever you want to call it. Fluid intoxicants. Notice I did not say alcohol.
I did not say alcohol. What is alcohol? Who studied organic chemistry? What is alcohol?
It's a substance that has an OH group attached to it. Chemically speaking, an alcohol, when you say an alcohol in modern terms, what does that mean? It means a substance that has an OH radical attached to it. Okay?
Not every alcohol, chemically speaking, is najas. Why? Because when Allah says that khamr is najis, khamr is najis, okay? When Allah says khamr is najis, khamr is a substance which transforms your mind.
Now alcohol is a... There's millions and millions of types of alcohol. Not every alcohol alters your mind.
Not every alcohol induces intoxication. Only those alcohols which induce intoxications are najis. So, is it allowed to wear alcoholic perfumes?
Please be specific. Think, is it allowed to wear alcoholic perfumes? Yes?
No? Obviously. Anything in between? Makroo? No, there's no makroo over here.
I've just given you the definition. You tell me, you respond to me. It depends. Let's hear some depends.
It depends on what? Exactly, Jazakallah khair. Somebody is following me, alhamdulillah.
Okay, I am speaking to somebody. It depends on what type of alcohol it is. If that type of alcohol that is present in the perfume.
would cause, if you ingest it, if it would cause you to become intoxicated, then it is najis. And therefore you cannot even put it on your clothes because it's najis. And if that type of alcohol would not cause you to become intoxicated, then it is not najis and you can't use it as perfume.
Is that clear? InshaAllah everyone's following, right? Any type of alcohol which causes intoxication is najis. Otherwise, it is not najis. Just because chemically something says some type of alcohol on it, That doesn't mean it's najas.
You have to ask the chemist, you have to ask the organic chemist or whatever, whether this particular substance induces intoxication. If it does, then it is not allowed to use it on your body, even because it is najas. Otherwise, you're allowed to use it, okay? What are some pure substances which are commonly assumed to be najas but are not?
Now obviously everything is pure unless proven otherwise. Remember this rule, right? But we're now going to discuss some pure substances which are commonly thought to be impure, but in reality they are not impure. Number one, semen in and of itself.
This is not najas. Now obviously semen is what is released after the orgasm or during the orgasm versus pre-seminal fluid. This is the liquid that oozes out before.
The semen is ejaculated out. And this is how the scholars differentiate between semen and pre-seminal fluid. Pre-seminal fluid, they say this is the fluid that oozes out.
It is not ejaculated. Whereas the seminal fluid, this is a fluid that ejaculates out. Semen in and of itself is pure, because this is the basis of human life. So Allah Azzawajal made it an exception.
It is pure. And the proof for this is Aisha narrated that, I would sometimes see the traces of semen in the Prophet's clothing, so I would scratch it off before we go to the masjid. Now, if it had been impure, it would not have been allowed merely to scratch it and leave it. Because when you scratch, the traces are still there. Had it been impure, it would not have been sufficient just to scratch it and leave it at that.
You would have had to wash it, right? So the fact that she only scratched it and then the Prophet ﷺ would pray in those clothes, shows you that semen is, number two, the urine and stool of animals that are eaten. The urine of a goat, for example.
The stool of a cow, for example. These animals that are eaten, their urine and stool is not najis. Now this doesn't mean that you go and put it on your body, obviously. What we're saying is, if it so happens that this substance is on your body, for example a farmer, okay, and he has some type of urine or stool of these animals on his body, then he doesn't have to wash himself before praying. These substances in and of themselves are not najis, they are pure.
And the proof for this is the fact that the Prophet ﷺ was asked, are we allowed to pray in sheep pens? Pens, sheep pens. Everyone knows what a sheep pen is, right?
These are places where sheep are kept. We call them a sheep pen. Are we allowed to pray in sheep pens? He said, yes. Now everyone knows that, or not everyone maybe in our times, but farmers and those that are dealing with sheep, they know that these places are full of sheep droppings and sheep urine.
The fact that the Prophet ﷺ allowed him to pray there shows you that this is not neges. Likewise, in those times, there was a certain medical ailment whose remedy was drinking camel urine, okay? And so the Prophet ﷺ allowed them to do that, to drink camel urine.
Had it been najis, he would not have allowed them to do so. Because someone came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, O Rasulullah, can we take medicine that has khamr, or type of alcoholic intoxications in it? He said, no.
They said, Ya Rasulullah, we use it as medicine. He said, it is filthy, all of it. It doesn't cure. So, the fact that he allowed them to drink camel urine shows you that the urine and the stool of animals that are permissible to eat are not najis. Number three, small quantities of blood.
We already discussed this. A small quantity of blood, such as a nosebleed, such as a prick. That if someone is pricked or some small cut and there's blood that is oozing out, this is not najas.
Only if it is gushing out, this is what is najas. And number four, everything else. Everything is pure unless proven otherwise.
Remember the general rule. Everything is mubah, everything is pure unless proven otherwise. With that introduction to najas and non-najas, how do we clean najas?
The first thing that we have to do is to remove the object that is najas completely. If it is a dead animal, we have to remove that animal. A dead rat, for example, or a dead cat, or anything, a dead animal.
If it can be removed, or if it is stool, a child has defecated in a certain area, we have to remove that completely. If it cannot be removed for some reason, for example, if it is urine on the carpet, you cannot remove it. Then you add water until you think that you have dissolved it.
You add a much larger amount of water to it. So if a child has urinated, For example, if you add four or five cups of water, it should be sufficient to dissolve it to a very small and imperceptible amount. The proof for this is that a Bedouin came to the masjid and he urinated in the masjid. So the Prophet ﷺ said, throw a bucket of water over it. A bucket of water compared to one man's urine, this is more than sufficient to wash away and dissolve this amount of urine.
Likewise, a chemical transformation purifies substances. A complete chemical transformation purifies a substance. So for example, a person has defecated. After a few weeks, what will that become?
What will that become? Sand, right? It will become soil because it will be transformed, decayed. That becomes pure. A chemical transformation also purifies substances.
This comes in handy, by the way, in many of the food products of our times. In my opinion, if there is a chemical transformation, a complete chemical transformation, then even if the original object was najis, The final product is pure. If it doesn't fall under another impurity, in and of itself, it is pure.
An exception to the rule of urine is the urine of an unweaned male boy. Because the Prophet ﷺ said that an unweaned male boy only needs to be sprinkled over his urine. And as for a weaned male boy under a girl, then they need to be washed. What is an unweaned male boy?
It is a boy who subsists primarily on his mother's milk. We're talking about natural milk here. If you... give it bottled milk, then this does not qualify as weaning.
The boy that primarily subsists and is breastfed by its mother, his urination, and only this boy and not the girl, all you have to do is take some water and splash it. You don't have to wash it, unlike other najis substances. You don't have to wash it completely.
There's a special case of the saliva of a dog because here is a special type of najis which is extra. Najis than other substances, the Prophet ﷺ said, if a dog licks in a bowl of one of yours, then throw out the water and wash this bowl seven times, the first time being with sand. Meaning excessively wash it, because the najis of the dog is extra impure. And from what I understand, this has also been proven by modern science, Allah knows best, we really don't care if it has or not, our religion has already told us to do so. that the saliva of a dog is extra impure.
If the dog licks or eats any food, that food becomes najis. We have to throw it away. And the container that the dog did that in needs to be washed especially more. Any traces of any najis remaining after we have done this can be ignored. Any traces of any najis remaining after this can be ignored.
For example, is... Menstrual blood najas? Yes, because it's flowing blood.
In fact, it is one of the strongest types of najasa, right? Now, the common problem that many of our sisters might face is some blood might leak onto their undergarments for example. Okay? So the Sahabiyat also asked about this because it's a very common problem. What do we do about this?
The Prophet said, scratch off the blood, scratch off the blood, okay? Wipe it or rub it together with each other, pour water on it, And wash it. So they said, what if there are traces left?
He replied, it doesn't matter what is left after that. So any traces that are left, because sometimes the blood will be so much soaked into the cloth, that there will be traces of redness left in the cloth. You might put it in the washing machine 20 times, and there will still be some type of traces, some type of discoloring on the cloth. The Prophet ﷺ said, that can be ignored.
You don't have to worry about that. The same applies for any other najas. After you've done your job, and you've washed it, and you've washed it, and you've cleaned it, and you've rubbed it, and there's still some coloring left, that can be ignored and neglected by you.
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