How Can I Know I Have Purified Myself Properly after Using the Toilet?
Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi
Question
- If while doing istinja you, later on, see that your finger is a bit discolored but have poured water over it more than three times while cleaning yourself, & have used that to clean other places, is everything you cleaned & wherever water splashed considered impure?
- Filth was not on it, but not sure if it’s considered clean. The area that gets a bit dirty is the side of the finger, between the skin & nail. Usually, clean my fingers in the entire process by rubbing before I’m done but forgot once & now I don’t know what to do.
Answer
In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
I pray this finds you in the best of states.
1. As soon as you feel confident that you have washed your rear part properly, you can deem your hands and the water remaining on your body to be pure. [Tahtawi, Hashya ‘ala Dur al-Mukhtar]
Even the splashes on the legs and feet are pure.
Please see: Are Splashes on the Body from Washing My Private Parts After Relieving Myself Impure.
2. As stated above, the basis is that your finger is pure after cleaning yourself. Having doubts about your finger being filthy after this process is of no consequence.
In this situation, you simply return to this important fiqh principle:
“Certainty is not lifted by a doubt.” [Ibn Nujaym, al-Ashbah wa’l Nadha’ir; Majallat al-Ahkam al-‘Adiliyya]
This means that if one is certain about something, such as the validity of our worship, with this being the basic assumption for all human actions, then we will keep assuming it is valid until certain it is not. Mere possibilities and even likelihoods do not change this.
Thus you can deem your finger pure.
Allah, Most High, says: “Allah does not like to impose a difficulty on you.” [Quran, 5:6]
And Allah knows best.
Wassalam
[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.
