How should a female patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder deal with yellow or brown spots resembling urine or feces on carpets and pillows, knowing that they are old and odorless, and that she has stepped on them with wet feet? Does the rest of the carpet and her clothes become impure when she wipes them?

We have issued many fatwas warning against obsessive thoughts (waswas) and succumbing to them, clarifying that giving in to waswas—once they take hold of a person—corrupts their religious practice and their worldly life. Therefore, we advise you to disregard them. Know that the default state of things is purity. So, as long as you are not certain that these spots are from an impure substance, adhere to the original ruling, which is purity. For certainty is not dispelled by mere doubt, and you are not obliged to wash them or wash whatever they may have touched.