Person washing their hands before doing any work

February 26, 2018
Answered by Mufti Ismail Moosa
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Question

If a kafir (disbeliever) wants to do laundry or wash our hair, do we need to ask him to wash his hands before doing that, because he will touch our hair or clothes when it’s wet?

Or we ask him to wash hands only when we are sure that he was touching something unclean? And the same question for Muslims, even some of them may have urine or blood on their hands. But when we don’t know that, do we have to ask him to wash hands before touching something wet?
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Answer

Wa’alaykum as Salam wa rahmatullhi wa barakatuhu,

If you cannot clearly see any impurity on the hands of a believer or disbeliever, nor are you aware of their hands being impure, there would be no need to request them to wash their hands. Rather, we will assume their hands to be clean.

There is no need to have any waswasah (doubt) with regards to the purity of the item which they washed.

Reference
وعندنا هو محمول على نجاسة خبث الاعتقاد؛ بدليل ما روي عن «النبي – صلى الله عليه وسلم – أنه أنزل وفد ثقيف في المسجد وكانوا مشركين» ، ولو كان عينهم نجسا لما فعل مع أمره بتطهير المسجد (بدائع الصنائع في ترتيب الشرائع (1/ 64)ونجاسة الكافر في قوله تعالى: {إنما المشركون نجس} لخبث باطنه في اعتقاده فلا يؤثر في نجاسة أعضائه، (فتح باب العناية (1/ 93)

And Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala knows best.

Answered by: Mufti Ismail Moosa