Is Guano Pure?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question 

I bought some compost that has Guano in it sourced from sea bird droppings from the Namibian sea tables. I read Guano can contain eggshells, feathers, and even bones and carcasses. But the sea tables only produce 5cm a year, and it’s sieved. 

Can I assume it’s pure? If it was contaminated, how long until it’s changed? Months? If I used it in containers within drainage holes and I water them, and the patio is all wet from the hose and the containers, and I walk in it, are my shoes impure?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Guano is considered a light physical impurity as it is the droppings of a bird that is impermissible to eat. [Tahtawi/Shurunbulali, Hashiyat Maraqi al-Falah] 

It is permissible to use such impurity as a fertilizer.

If water drains through a flower pot containing guano, wherever the water reaches of the patio is now impure. However, once the water is dried up by the sun and all traces of it are no longer visible, it is considered pure. Prayer is even permissible on it. [Tahtawi/Shurunbulali, Hashiyat Maraqi al-Falah] 

Your shoes do not become impure unless you walk on the water that drained from the pot. If that occurs, merely rubbing the shoes on a pure section of the ground is sufficient to purify them. [Ibid.]

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 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 several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.