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What is the ruling on performing ablution from faucets in a mosque lavatory when it is known that the water hose there has touched impurities, and is it obligatory to wash every faucet after using it in this situation?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The person is afflicted with obsessive-compulsive disorder (waswasah), and he must disregard it and pay no attention to it. There is no need to avoid entering the bathroom because the hose fell on impurity, especially if its contamination with impurity has not been verified. The basic principle is that something remains pure unless the presence of impurity is ascertained. Sheikh Al-Uthaymeen, may Allah have mercy on him, said that Islamic law came with ease and distanced man from baseless obsessive thoughts, and that the original state of clothes and the body is purity unless the presence of impurity is ascertained, citing the hadith: "He should not leave until he hears a sound or perceives a smell." If the presence of impurity on the hose is ascertained, it is sufficient to pour water on it to purify it. As for washing water faucets, that is from waswasah and has no justification unless the impurity reaching them is verified. One must not indulge in these obsessive thoughts which have led to abandoning prayer in the mosque, and one should not rule something impure except with absolute certainty.

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

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