Is It Permissible to Put Clothes with Allah’s Names on Them in the Dirty Clothes Hamper?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

I have a shirt from a Muslim Tournament I’m participating in. However, on the back of the shirt, there’s a list of many sponsors of the event. Some of these sponsors have names like “Madinah Institute”, “Bein Quran”, “Masjid Al-Furqan”, “Georgia Muslim Voter Project” etc. Would it be appropriate to put this shirt in the dirty clothes hamper or wear it to the bathroom? And if it had Allah’s name on it (in English or Arabic), would the ruling be the same?

Is this considered disbelief?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Disbelief is a Matter of the Heart

It is not disbelief to put clothing in a laundry basket, even if the clothing has religious writing on it. Disbelief is not an action, but a matter of the heart. Disbelief is defined as the rejection of a tenet that one is required to believe in in order to enter Islam. [Tahawi, al-Aqida al-Tahawiyya]

Clothing With the Name of Allah On It

It is permissible to put clothing in the laundry basket, even if the clothing has religious word on it, especially if the religious word is not mentioned alone but subsequently mentioned as a descriptor or adjective of the main subject matter. For example, if someone’s name  is Abdulllah (slave of Allah) – the name of Allah is not the subject matter but comes subsequent in the person’s name.

The permissibility would be due to the principle: a subsequent factor is not singled out with its own ruling (al-Tab’i la yufrad bi’l-Hukm) [Majalla al-Ahkam al-‘Adaliyya]

Etiquettes of Propriety

If something were to have direct mention of the name of Allah Most High or any of His names – it would be best to either, place it on the top of the laundry basket in as respectful of a way possible, or to fold it inwards, such that the name is not visible when placing it in the laundry basket or in the washing machine. However, these are merely suggestions of propriety and would not be sinful as long as one does not hold an ill intention for doing so.

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.