Do I Have to Remove Filth from the Face of My Baby?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi
Question
If impurity such as vomit or the like gets onto the body is it sufficient to remove the impurity with a tissue if it is all removed and no traces of it remain or must you wash it with water. As babies have vomit left on their faces and it’s hard to wash their faces so I just wipe it with a tissue and no vomit remains on the face.
Answer
In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
I pray this finds you in the best of states.
Removing Filth
It is enough for general cleanliness to use a tissue to remove filth from the face of a baby. Babies are not required to pray. Thus there are no legal consequences in having them not ritually pure.
As for an adult who needs to remove filth from his body in order to be allowed to pray, wiping the filth with a tissue won’t be enough to reach ritual purity. In this case, one must use water or any liquid that will remove the filth, such as vinegar. [Shurunbulali, Nur al-Idah]
Nonetheless, there are tremendous benefits in removing filth properly from your children and keeping them clean. Ibn Jawzi mentions for example that the angels avoid dirty places and bad smells. As for the devils, they are attracted by these things. [Laknawi, Al-Ta’liq al-Mumajjad]
Vomit
Vomit is not always filthy. Vomit is only filthy when the amount vomited would fill-up the mouth. If what has been vomited is below this amount then it is ritually pure. [Shurunbulali, Nur al-Idah]
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings upon him, has said that Wudu should be repeated after vomit that would fill-up the mouth. [See: I‘la’ al-Sunan from Ibn Maja and others]
And Allah knows best.
Wassalam
[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Ustadh Sufyan Qufi is an advanced seeker of knowledge, originally from Algeria, who grew up in France. He began searching far and wide for answers to the fundamental questions of life and was disappointed at the answers he found.
Then he connected with various traditional teachers and gradually connected with SeekersGuidance. He embarked on his journey of learning through the various teachers at SeekersGuidance, including his mentor Shaykh Faraz Rabbani.
He studied numerous texts in Islamic Law, Theology, Hadith, and other areas with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and other teachers, including Shaykh Abdurrahman al-Sha‘ar, Shaykh Ali Hani, and others.
He is an active instructor at SeekersGuidance and answers questions through the SeekersGuidance Answers Service.
