Are My Clothes Still Pure despite the Unclean Build-Up in the Laundry Machine?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question 

Are My Clothes Still Pure despite the Unclean Build-Up in the Laundry Machine?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

The unclean build-up, or in your words gunk, is not impure (najis). Impurities are very specific things determined by the Sacred Law as impure. Substances that are dirty/nasty, despite being such, are not impure.

That said, all of your clothes are considered pure, and any impure clothing put into the laundry cycle is considered purified by running the laundry machine. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

Hope this helps
Allah knows best

[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.