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Is a small amount of all types of impurities (najasat) excused according to the Hanafis if it affects the product, such as food and drink?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The issue can be summarized as follows:

Firstly: Scholars differed regarding what is excused concerning impurities: - Hanafis: They differentiate between light and heavy impurity. They excuse heavy impurity if it does not exceed the weight of a dirham, and light impurity if it does not reach a quarter of the garment. - Malikis: They excuse a dirham's worth of blood, pus, and festering, specifically, due to the difficulty of avoiding it. - Shafi'is: They excuse a small amount of blood, pus, and what is difficult to avoid, such as flea blood. The criterion for this is common practice (urf). - Hanbalis: They do not excuse a small amount of impurity except for a small amount of blood, pus, and festering, excluding the blood of impure animals and what exits the front and back private parts.

Secondly: A small amount of impurity that cannot be avoided is excused, such as mouse droppings in food. This is the view of the Hanafis and a position within the Hanbali school of thought, due to the hardship and widespread affliction.

Thirdly: Animal emulsifiers: - If they are from an animal that is permissible to eat and was slaughtered according to Islamic rites (dhabiha), there is no issue. - If they are from an animal that is not permissible to eat or was not slaughtered according to Islamic rites, but then underwent transformation (istiḥālah) (its true nature changed) or was present in a small, negligible amount, then it becomes pure and permissible. Transformation (istiḥālah) is a purifying agent according to the majority of scholars.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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