Removing filth and cleaning in the bathroom

Removing filth happens by:

• Washing filth with water (even if used for ablution ) or non-oily liquids (e.g. vinegar):
1. 3 different vessels of water for invisible filth with a wringing, OR dipping it once in running water without wringing.
2. Filth that is visible is cleaned by removing it, even by one wash. It makes no difference if a trace of it is left (color, taste or smell) that other than water would be needed to remove, e.g. soap.
• Wiping anything with a polished surface in which the filth is not soaked up or enters cracks e.g. mirrors/ knives.)
• Shaving the surface of new (old wood is washed and left to dry 3 times.)
• Rubbing filth off leather footwear on dry ground if the filth has a body or has been covered with clay.
• Scratching and rubbing dry semen off clothes (unless it is mixed with other filthy fluids or is wet.
• The trace of filth disappearing from the ground after drying or from plants after the filth has dried. It is allowed to pray there, but not to use this ground for ablution by soil (tayammum.)
• The original filth changing into something else. E.g. Wine changing into vinegar, or dung into soil or ashes, or filthy olive oil into soap.
• If the filth comes from a dog, then it is an Ascertained Merit to wash it 7 times, including one time with water and soil mixed.

Useful questions regarding removal of filth

• Oil that was originally filthy never becomes clean. This is provided that the oil itself was not originally filthy, such as lard or the fat of a dead animal that had not been slaughtered correctly. However, if there was filthy oil on one's body that was NOT originally filthy (such as olive oil that had come in contact with something filthy,) then the trace of oil left after washing 3 times is not considered filthy.
• Meat cooked in something filthy cannot be cleaned. However, the poultry that has been put a little in hot water in order to take its feathers out is cleaned by washing it.
• Similarly, oil that was not originally filthy but comes in contact with filth is cleaned by pouring water on it and then separating it three times.
• Honey that has become filthy is boiled with water and left to solidify three times (while pouring the water off each time.)
• A cloth that has been pigmented with filth, such as blood, becomes clean when the water being used to wash it no longer changes color.
• The woman’s breast is purified from the baby’s vomit by the saliva of the baby when drinking milk.
• The mouth of the one who has drunk wine becomes pure through the flow of new saliva several times.
• What has been distilled from filth is itself filthy.
• Clothing with dry semen that has been cleaned by scratching it off, dry earth which's trace of filth has disappeared, or tanned leather that has been tanned by the sun, do not become filthy again by contact with water.
• In addition, one should mention that urine drop splashes the size of needle heads are excused. The same is the case for the used water of the Complete Body Wash (ghusl) for the dead as long as the washing is ongoing, but not after the water has settled.
• Likewise exempted is the filthy clay and clay-water of the streets unless one sees the filth itself in it.
• If a filthy mattress or soil became wet from the sweat from someone sleeping on it, then the filth is not considered as transferred to that person unless its smell, taste or color is apparent on him. The same is the case if someone's foot was moist and he stepped on a filthy mattress or soil, or if a moist cloth was put on filthy dry ground.
• If the wind blows over filthy ground before hitting some clothing, then the clothing does not become filthy unless the filth appears in it.
• If a dry clean cloth was wrapped in a filthy wet cloth, but it was not so wet that water could be wringed out of it, then the former does not become filthy unless the filth appears in it (odor, taste, color.)
• If someone was wearing wet clothing and had flatus, then the clothing does not become filthy.

Regarding cleaning oneself in the toilet (istinjaa’):

• Say "A^uuthu-billaahi-min-al-khubthi-wal-khabaaa'ith" then the basmalah ("bismillaah-ir-Rahmaan-ir-Rahiim"), then enter the bathroom with the left foot.
• It is disliked to face or turn one’s back to the direction of prayer during defecation/ urination.
• It is a merit to clean the exit place with water or something uprooting, but if it has spread to an area of more than one dirham (Equivalent to the area in which water would remain if the hand was held open and flat with water in it) it is obligatory to wash until clean by the left hand.
• If using stones, toilet paper or the like, there is no prescribed number of wipes. One wipes until it is clean. It is better to use both stones/paper/etc. than water.
• It is disliked to make to wipe with something of respectable value (e.g. food or coal), manure or bones.
• It is disliked to uncover the between the navel to below the knee without a reason, so minimize the time.
• It is disliked to make istinjaa' with one’s right hand.
• To wet ones hand with water before istinjaa' is an etiquette.
• To wipe oneself dry after washing is an etiquette.
• It is disliked to mention Allah’s name by the lips in the bathroom (but not in the heart.)
• After exiting say "Ghufraanaka" and "Al-hamdu lillahi-llathii athhaba ^annii al-athaa wa ^aafaanii"