The ruling on washing the clothes of a Muslim with the clothes of a non-Muslim

23-3-2006 | IslamWeb

Question:

Is it permissible for a non-Muslim maid to wash her clothes in the same washing machine but not at the same time? She fist washes her clothes, then we wash the basin with water and then we wash our clothes. Are the clothes in this way pure or not pure? It should be noted that the maid is from the people of the book (Christian).

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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 is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

 

We have already clarified in Fatwa 89389 that according to the most preponderant opinion of the scholars that the impurity of a non-Muslim is a moral impurity and not a tangible impurity; so please refer to the above Fatwa. Therefore, if there is no impurity on their clothes, then they are pure just like the clothes of a Muslim which are not touched by an impurity. Nonetheless, if one believes that their clothes are touched by an impurity as they usually are not precautious about it, then it is better to avoid their clothes until they become pure. As regards what you mentioned in the question, there is no doubt that the clothes of this non-Muslim maid become pure by what you mentioned.

Allaah Knows best.