Is the Water Deemed Used If I Put My Ritually Impure Hand in the Bucket of Water?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi
Question
What if I am in ritual impurity, have to do obligatory ghusl, and immerse my hands in a bucket? Does the water become used? Is the concept of used water the same for both ritual impurity and non-ritual impurity?
Answer
In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
If you are in a state of major ritual impurity and immerse your hands in a bucket of water, only the part of the water that was directly in contact with your skin has become used. This means that most of the water in the bucket remained unused. What you have now in your bucket is a tiny amount of used water mixed with a huge amount of unused water. This mix is deemed, as a whole, unused water in Islamic law because the amount of unused water is higher than the amount of used water.
When you are in a state of ritual purity, no ritual impurity is lifted when your skin comes into contact with water with no intent from you to worship Allah through this. In this case, this water remains unused.
Nonetheless, if you are in a state of ritual purity and use water for worship, such as performing another wudu while being already pure or cleaning your hands before eating to fulfill this sunna, then the water become used even though you were ritually pure. [Shurunbulali, Nur al-Idah]
And Allah knows best.
[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.
