How Should I Clean the Food Stains from Unlawful Food?

Question

I ate food prepared in a shop with pork. I know there is an impurity transfer to the food I ate. While eating this burger, I got oil from the burger on my phone and clothes. I purified my phone and changed my clothes. While cleaning my phone with a wet tissue, I think some of the grease from my phone got on the table, and while cleaning my phone, the tissue touched the place I believe had oil on it. I continued to clean my phone. My question is, do I have to repurify my phone and any place I touched after I touched my phone?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

May Allah alleviate our difficulties and guide us to what pleases Him. Amin.

First, we should always be cautious of the food we eat. If this was deliberate, you should sincerely repent to Allah. He is Most Merciful.

Only clean what you saw (with certainty) being affected with moist filth. Allah knows best.

Filth (Najasa) Contamination

The type of contact that would cause contamination by pigs and dogs etc. is restricted, in the Shafi‘i school, to contamination by traces of moisture, whether saliva, urine, anything moist from them, or any of their dry parts that have become moist [Shirbini, Mughni al-Muhtaj]

The filth only transferred where there was moisture present. We recommend that you clean the affected area by the Maliki School.

Cleaning Heavy Contamination

In the Shafi‘i School, something contaminated by filth from dogs or swine can only be cleansed by washing seven times. One of which (recommended not to be the last) must be purifying earth mixed with purifying water and reach the entire affected area.

One may not substitute something else like soap or glasswort in place of the earth. If something dry, such as the animal’s breath or hair, touches one’s person, it need only be brushed away. [Ibid.]

In the Maliki and Hanafi Schools, the above sevenfold washing is a Sunna and not obligatory. [Jaziri, al-Fiqh ‘ala al-Madhahib al-Arba’a]

I pray this is of benefit and that Allah guides us all.
[Shaykh] Irshaad Sedick
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Irshaad Sedick was raised in South Africa in a traditional Muslim family. He graduated from Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Strand, Western Cape, under the guidance of the late world-renowned scholar Shaykh Taha Karaan.

Shaykh Irshaad received Ijaza from many luminaries of the Islamic world, including Shaykh Taha Karaan, Mawlana Yusuf Karaan, and Mawlana Abdul Hafeez Makki, among others.

He is the author of the text “The Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A Hujjah or not?” He has served as the Director of the Discover Islam Centre and Al Jeem Foundation. For the last five years till present, he has served as the Khatib of Masjid Ar-Rashideen, Mowbray, Cape Town.

Shaykh Irshaad has thirteen years of teaching experience at some of the leading Islamic institutes in Cape Town). He is currently building an Islamic online learning and media platform called ‘Isnad Academy’ and has completed his Master’s degree in the study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg. He has a keen interest in healthy living and fitness.