When Impurity Transforms: Islam's Game-Changing Principle

Today in sha Allah as the conclusion of the chapters regarding purifying and najasa come to a close. We have a very important principle. That we are going to discuss that will conclude for us this chapter and this topic. So, we were discussing for the past few days how a person goes about purifying something after a najasa has contaminated it or come in contact with it. And the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam mentions a variety of things. And when we look at all of those narrations together from a bird's-eye view, we conclude two most important principles. Number one, that purifying a najasa is relative. So, what is clean for the ground is not necessarily clean for the shoes is not necessarily clean for the clothing, etc. It is relative based on what it is that we're cleaning. Number two, and that is that by any means that the najasa finds its way out of the clothing or finds its way purified, it is acceptable. So, we are going to add a third principle to that today. And this third principle will conclude this topic here. The author says, "Yesterday morning we discussed the narration of Abu Hurairah in which the nomad, the Arab Arab Bedouin came into the masjid and urinated in the masjid. The Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam commanded a the nub or a a a bucket, a well bucket of water be poured on the najasa, and it was then considered to be cleaned by that." Continuing from there, the author says,.

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Having technical difficulties here.

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So, the author says something very curious here. He says, "And the prophet told the companions when that Bedouin urinated in the masjid on that incident incident to put a bucket of water on it in order to hasten the purity purification of that part of the ground in the masjid. Otherwise, if they had left it and it had dried and completely and had dried to the point where it was it was no longer detectable, right? Then, it would have been considered to be cleaned by that. Then it would and then he cites a narration that was mentioned by al-Bukhari and it was narrated and reported by Abu Dawud al-Sijistani on the authority of Ibn Umar. He says that the stray dogs in Medina used to find their way into the masjid and urinate sometimes and come in and out of the masjid when the masjid was empty because, as we mentioned before, the masjids didn't have any gates or doors on it. It was open and so animals would find their way, as they would, into the masjid and they would do what animals do. And the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam didn't ever say to put water on the place where they may have urinated. Why? Because it would have dried and it would have been completely undetectable at that point. There's no need for that. Now, this takes us into a very interesting point that the author goes into. He says, Well, hadha kalam makhudh min al-Muhalla li-Ibn Hazm. Ibn Hazm rahimahullah fi kitabih al-Muhalla bi al-athar yadhkuru.

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Ijma' al-fuqaha' 'ala hadhihi.

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Al-fuqaha' fi tanzili hadhihi al-qa'idah 'ala ba'd al-mawadi' duna ba'd. Lakin, al-qa'idah min haythu hiya qa'idah,.

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From Ibn Hazm. he has a book that is the only real reason why the madhhab of the literalists is still documented to this day. And he was wrong on many issues. He was correct on many issues in this book Al-Muhalla. He was correct on a great deal and many of them. And the issue with the literalists, which the which is a group of fukaha that were extreme in their affirmation of the literal only. so it's a group and and a madhhab. And some of these scholars consider it the fifth madhhab. It is a group that were very literal. They're called the Zahiriyah. And they're so extreme in the literal aspects of the Quran and Sunnah that they overlook a lot of other things. And the thing with extremists and the the thing with extremism in general is when they're really when they're wrong, they're really wrong. But when they're right, they're very right, okay? And this is why al-Muhalla, authored by Ibn Hazm, is still considered a can still considered a very esteemed work in the science of fiqh, even though it is catering to the Zahiri madhhab, it is still has very strong points and arguments and very strong research in it, which was proven to be invaluable to the Muslimeen in the science of fiqh in the long run. Now, Ibn Hazm mentions in his book al-Muhalla a principle called istihalah. Al-istihalah, the principle is as follows. The ruling of Allah on a particular thing will change if the nature of that thing changes. This This called istihalah. Then he gives examples. He says for instance if an animal dies, turns into a carcass, and months go by or weeks or or years and the sun hits it and the wind and the elements and so forth. Over time that dead animal which is haram according to the consensus of the fuqaha, over time it will turn into what? Turn into salt. Right? Turn into salt. That salt, is it haram because of its origins or is that salt halal now because the nature of that dead animal has changed fundamentally and now it has a new ruling with its new form and that is the ruling of salt. The answer is number two. When something changes in its nature, its ruling changes as well. Another example. Let's say you're at home and your neighbor is barbecuing and you know, he's non-Muslim, he throws some pork onto the grill, right? And as this fire hits the pork fat, the pork and the pork fats is haram, correct? And it is najis according to consensus, it is considered a type of najasa. Well, when the fire hits those molecules, what does it turn into? What does it change it to? What comes off of it? Smoke. Okay? That smoke, what is that smoke? It's those molecules changing into that smoke. That smoke bellows over to your side of the fence and it comes over your clothing, it comes over your Is that smoke najasa or not? Is it najis or not? The answer is no. Why? Because that is no longer pork. That is no longer pig. That is smoke. And smoke is not considered a type of najasa in any of its states. Why did the ruling change? The ruling changed when the nature of the thing that was ruled upon changed. Okay? And this also is something that other chemical processes bring about. For instance, gelatin. Take gelatin. If I were to take gelatin from plants and I were to take gelatin from animals and go to a chemist and say, "I want you to tell me what kind of animal does gelatin came from? Or which one is the plant gelatin and which one is the meat gelatin?" The chemist would be unable to detect which one is which. Why? Because the nature of that thing has changed on a chemical level. It has changed. Therefore, the ruling has changed along with it. This is called istihala. The scholars agree on this principle. They agree on the principle of istihala and that is that if the nature of a thing changes fundamentally, its ruling changes fundamentally. Right? The only difference that they have amongst them is what this ruling applies to as opposed to what it doesn't apply to. So, you may find some scholars differ on whether it applies to gelatin or not, for instance. Okay? They don't differ on the actual principle, they differ on what? On the application of the principle. Does this case warrant istihala or not? However, they all agree on this principle. And this This principle is very important. Why? Because for instance, the water we drink from the tap, where does it come from? It comes from the water purification place, plant, right? Where all the bad water that goes down the drain goes to this plant, it's filtered, and it's cured we using chemicals and other processes, and then it's pumped back through the tap. Now, was added was water added to that water? No. It underwent chemical processes that changed it in its fundamental state. So, we took sewage water, which is najis, and we cured it with chemicals and different processes, and now when we take it and test it, it no longer has the same structure and makeup that that sewage water had now. Is this considered to be pure or not? The answer is yes, it's pure. Even though the real way to purify water that has najasa in it in Islamic fiqh is how? To add water to it. To continue to add water until the najasa becomes so diluted it is undetectable. Correct? But the prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam, he has told us of a principle, of this principle, and that is that that water is not considered to be najis because of a najasa that comes in contact with it unless its color, taste, or smell changes. When its color, taste, or smell changes due to that najasa, now it becomes impure. But then when we add water to it until that is no longer detected and its color goes back to its original state, and its smell goes back to its original state, and its taste goes back to its original state, what happens now? It is pure again, even though we know that there was najasa in it. But we added water until it was no longer detectable, we took the water back to its original state. Now if we were to not add water, but instead use chemicals or filtration or whatever processes in order to make that water no longer smell, no longer taste, no longer discolored by the najasa, is it now pure? Yes, it is pure. This is This is istihala in action. And that's why the fuqaha of Islam agree that the water that comes out of your tap is considered to be pure. And I have researched this, and there are studies done on this, that this is how water is purified in these purification plants. Is it valid? Yes, the fuqaha agree that modern fuqaha, they agree that this is valid. Why? Because the nature or the ruling of a thing changes with the change of its fundamental state. Okay? That goes for anything. Food, that goes for let's say for instance and we'll give one more example. Let's say a cook is cooking and he takes some wine and throws it on the steak as it's cooking, right? And so the wine hits the steak, what happens to the wine now? The flame comes out, it burns and then the taste, there's still a taste left behind from the burnt wine. However, is that wine still alcohol? The answer is no. The alcohol burned off. The alcohol changed the nature. If you ate 1 million steaks just continued eating, one plate after the other until you hit 1 million, would you get drunk? No, you won't get drunk, right? You probably die from but you won't get drunk. Why? Because the alcohol has burned off. Is that steak halal or haram? It is halal. Now, again, keep in mind, we mentioned a few weeks ago what is halal is not always appropriate, correct? Is it appropriate for a Muslim to say bismillah al-rahman al-rahim, throw some wine on my steak? That may not be appropriate, but is it halal? It is not haram. That is a different thing altogether, correct? So this is the ruling of istihala. It's extremely beneficial to us as Muslimin. The nature of istihala, this happens in a lot of things, making of soap, the making of food, gelatin, stuff that that's in our food, that's in our water, that's in the things that we use on our body, the things that we use in our clothes. These things are This ruling is very important for us, and that is if the fundamental of a thing changes, if the fundamental state of a thing changes, the ruling on that changes with it. Right? With that, we will have ended the chapters on taharat an-najasat, and tomorrow inshallah, we will go into sunan al-fitra. Nas'al Allah inshallah, nas'al Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala an yufaqqihana fi dinina wa an yu'allimana ma yanfa'una wa an yanfa'ana bima allama bima allamana wa an.

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