When Does a Transfer of Filth Occur?

Answered by Ustadh Tabraze Azam

Question: Assalam alaykum

Some scholars say that if a dry impurity is touched upon by wet hands then it transfers even if the traces can not be seen but the Hanafi school says it does not transfer. Could you provide me an evidence regarding this?

Answer: Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,

If a wet limb comes into contact with an item or area that is religiously filthy, there is no transfer of filth unless its traces are clearly manifest on the pure limb.

The reason for this is that the wetness normally transfers and is absorbed by the dry item or area, and not the other way round. This is a straightforward way of looking at the matter as we are looking to see if the filth, which is something discernible, has moved.

Note that there is no tradition (hadith) or Qur’anic verse for every single ruling of law. This is a misunderstanding of how things work. Rather, we derive foundational principles from those and other sources and then derive rulings accordingly.

[Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar ‘ala al-Durr al-Mukhtar]

Please also see: A Reader on Waswasa (Baseless Misgivings) and: How Is Filth Transferred?

And Allah Most High knows best.
[Ustadh] Tabraze Azam

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadh Tabraze Azam holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Leicester, where he also served as the President of the Islamic Society. He memorised the entire Qur’an in his hometown of Ipswich at the tender age of sixteen, and has since studied the Islamic Sciences in traditional settings in the UK, Jordan and Turkey. He is currently pursuing advanced studies in Jordan, where he is presently based with his family.