Removing Impurity Without Water (FATWA)

The Question

What do the scholars of the religion say regarding this issue that there is najāsah ḥaqīqīyah upon the body in an amount that prevents [ṭahārah], rather, there is more than that amount and there is a risk of an illness increasing if it is washed, then how should they perform ṣalāh? If there is any juz’īyah in your sight, then please write it. Also, can tayammum be done to wash the najāsah ḥaqīqīyah or not? Please explain and be rewarded.

The Answer

If it is harmful to wash with water, but it (the impurity) can be removed using something else that is not harmful, such as joshanda medicine, vinegar, or any `araq, then they should be used to remove it, since water is not necessary for purity from najāsah ḥaqīqīyah. Rather, its removal is required regardless of what the remover is. If this cannot be done either because there is a predominant belief that the illness will increase even if something besides water is used as a remover, then there is compulsion and pardon, to the extent that even exposing the `awrah in front of others is an excuse for the pardon. It is in `Ālamgīrī that:

تطهير النجاسة من بدن المصلي وثوبه والمكان الذي يصلي عليه واجب هذا إذا كانت النجاسة قدراً مانعاً و امكن ازالتها من غير ارتكاب ما هو اشد حتى لو لم يتمكن من ازالتها الا بإبداء عورته للناس يصلي معها لو ابدأها للإزالة فسق هكذا في البحر

To purify the impurity from the body of the muṣallī, his clothes, and the place where he is performing ṣalāh upon is wājib. This is when the impurity is the amount of preventing [the state of purity] and its removal is possible without committing a sin that is worse, such that if it is not possible to remove it without exposing his `awrah to the people, he will perform ṣalāh with it. If he exposes it [`awrah] for the removal [of impurity] then it is fisq. This is how it is in al-Baḥr.

Tayammum can only remove najāsah ḥukmīyah. Allāh E knows best

Answered by:

Muftī Amjad `Alī al-A`ẓamī V