Claiming that most banknotes are impure

26-1-2016 | IslamWeb

Question:

It has been determined through research that one in seven banknotes in the UK is affected by faecal matter. Therefore it is inevitable that this faecal matter comes in touch with people's hands. Do we therefore regard money as impure to touch? Or do we ignore this waswas (whispering) and continue to touch money on the basis that our senses do not see or smell impurity on the money notes? Thank you.

---

Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ʻalayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger. 

We believe that this is quite far-fetched and that it is very unlikely that there is serious research that has reached such a conclusion. These claims seem to be more like nonsense and far from being true.

We advise you to disregard such illusions for they are mere waswaas (obsessive whispering). The basic principle is that banknotes are ritually pure unless proven otherwise with such certainty that one could swear by Allaah that these banknotes are impure.

For more benefit, please refer to fataawa 206935and 267709.

Allaah knows best.