Does Dried Urine Transfer If Stepped In with a Wet Sock?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

If there are dried stains of normal-looking water contaminated with urine on the floor and a person walks in it with wet socks, the wet socks seem normal. Can they be assumed pure? I believed that mine was pure in this situation and prayed Isha Salah; I suffer from waswasa.

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

If traces of dried urine appear on the wet sock, the sock is impure. If the traces do not appear, the socks are pure.

What is intended by the ‘traces’ is the smell or color of the impurity. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah]

Ignoring Doubts

In situations like this, apply the principle “everything is considered pure until one is certain or near certain of the contrary.”

Thus if you suffer from doubts, know that doubts are not strong enough to consider something impure. Therefore the doubts should always be ignored.

How to Deal with Impurities

Allah Most High has not charged anyone beyond their capacity. He, Most High says, “and Allah has not put, upon you, in the religion, any undue hardship.” [Quran, 22:78]

One should not allow the Shaytan to place misgivings in one’s heart.

These types of misgivings are all too common in regard to matters of purification. Shaytan plays on people’s sincerity in their religion and incites them toward false caution.

What is True Caution

Proper caution is to follow the Sunna of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace).

Misgivings (Waswasa)

For the one who is constantly in doubt, abandoning caution is often the best cure.

“As for the one who is often inflicted with waswasa, it is necessary for them to sever the cause of the waswasa and not to give it any consideration. This is because it is the doing of Shaytan, and we have been commanded to oppose him.” [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

Knowledge

The long-term cure for these constant doubts is to seek a deeper understanding of Islamic Knowledge. With knowledge, Shaytan can not deceive you with his whispers and plots. I would advise that you find authentic scholars in your area and study with them a basic text in Islamic Jurisprudence.

Please note that SeekersGuidance.org has classes available in Islamic Jurisprudence and many other subjects.

May Allah ease all of your affairs and protect you and us from the plots of Shaytan.

Hope this Helps
Allah A’lam

[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.