Can I Use Wet Paper Towels to Clean Filth off of My Body?

Answered by Ustadh Tabraze Azam

Question: Assalam alaykum

Would it be permissible for us to use wet paper towels to clean filth off of our body? Say hypothetically if a drop of urine or flip owing blood fell on my exposed thigh could I use a wet paper towel to remove it or would I have to wash it off?

Answer: Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,

No, you cannot remove filth from the body using wet paper towels because you must use something which removes the filth, such as water, and not something which will cause the filth to spread.

This is unless you squeeze the water out from the paper towel, and subsequently use that water to remove the filth, if there is a sufficient amount of it.

If your body is affected by actual impurity, such as a splash of urine, and not a fine spray, or mere misgivings, you simply wash the area by pouring water over it once, and rubbing it. This is sufficient.

[Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah (1.229)]

Please see: A Reader on Waswasa (Baseless Misgivings)

And Allah Most High alone knows best.

wassalam,
[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.