Consequenses of not cleaning a urine carpet properly

Feb 5, 2022 | Taharah (Purity)

Question

Assalamu a w r w b

A child urinated on a carpet outside the bathroom a few months ago. I first cleaned it and was confident that it was paak. We all started walking on it as normal.
Then I started to feel that I hadn’t cleaned it properly in the shar’I way, so I researched on how to clean it; the method was found from Mufti Ibrahim Desai’s answer. The link:
https://www.askimam.org/public/question_detail/19316

I will describe The method for the first time I cleaned it, as correct as I can remember.
1. As soon as possible after it occurred, I think I soaked the urine with some tissue. By this time most of it had penetrated the carpet, as I don’t think much came out. I’m not sure
2. I grabbed a scrap inabsorbant cloth, wet it, and scrubbed it thrice. After each time, I washed the cloth and wrenched it 3 times.
3. A few hrs later, the urine could be smelt from far, and as I had cleaned with an inabsorbant cloth, I disregarded the previous cleaning.
I then got a wet cloth and scrubbed the area, unsure if I did it 1 or 3 times. As the cloth would dry quickly with the water being absorbed by the carpet, I must have washed it a few times in the process (washed and wrenched it 3 times each time).
I would allow the carpet to dry, and repeated this process more than 3 times, not sure exactly how many times. I am most certain that I did it 5 times, but may be 7 max.
In the last few times I remember making sure the cloth I used was soaking wet before I would scrub. (I assumed this was washing)

For precaution, I also scrubbed the area where the bathroom mat was, directly outside the bathroom. We removed the mat.
I am 99% sure that no urine went on it, but still scrubbed the carpet under the mat area, each time I scrubbed the impure area. I used the same cloth. I am more confident that I either used to scrub that area first, then the impure area or if the other way around, I used to wash and wrench the cloth 3 times before touching that area.
I am not 100% sure about this, however, in the last few times I think something was asking me, you’ve done it 3 times so it’s all pure. Why are you keeping it separate? I don’t know if I gave in and kept it separate as outlined above.

Q1) Is that bathroom mat area impure? Does it need washing?

Before researching, I had some idea that I had to pour water, so I started the 1st out the 3 treatments:
1. I poured water over the area, but not over every inch, I thought it would spread. Probably used 1 litre of water or a bit more. I then dried it abit with 3 cloths, but didn’t try to get all the water out.
2. After a few hrs, I put a small dry cloth over the area so that others realise something is up and don’t walk on it.
I am most certain that the carpet was still wet.
I don’t know if the wetness from the carpet made the cloth wet or not.
3. There was a water spillage in another room and someone used that cloth to soak up that water. They said the cloth was totally dry.

Q2) a) Is the area where the spillage occurred pure or not?
b) if it is impure, will that carpet require washing in the same way, or will it be counted as a surface impurity, so will scrubbing with a wet cloth do?

After researching, when I learnt that I had to pour water over the area, I am now starting to clean according to that method 3 times. I am using approx. 2.5 litres to cover the whole area.
The method in the link says to ensure the carpet it so dry that no water would drip if lifted, before commencing the next treatment.
I do dry it with many cloths, but by the time i come to dry it, i believe most of the water has penetrated the carpet, most likely in the floorboard. I believe that i only retrieve less than half of the water with the cloths. AT this point, if I lifted the carpet, the base would probably drip. The carpet is thick. It’s not possible for me to soak all with the cloth. I then let it dry completely on its own.

Q3) a) Would it become pure by allowing the carpet to dry in this way? Do I need to soak all the water up with cloths?
b) is the floorboard/ area where the water leaks from the carpet pure?

As there have been a few months where the impure carpet was treated as normal, we have walked over it with wet feet, straight after wudhu ect. I am certain that the impure area of the carpet will have got wet with the wetness of the feet.

Q4) a)Does that mean the feet would have been impure?
The surrounding carpet besides that area will have got wet with that ‘impure wetness’ from the feet.
b) i) is all the furniture/ carpet/ material touched by that wetness impure?
If yes,
ii) will that impurity be transferred to the rest of the house when wet/ other people if they touch it while wet?
iii) how much of the house needs to be purified?
We and guests will have prayed salahs with that impurity on our feet/ clothing/ musallahs
c) i) if our feet/ clothing/ musallahs ect. Is classed as impure, were our salahs valid?
ii)Do we need to do qadha’?

I don’t know if this is waswasa or not. I am told that I doubt tahara too much and should not worry about the rest of the house besides that area. I am told that when I cleaned it the first time, I cleaned it externally anyway so it’s probably pure.

Q5)a) Is this correct?
b)If incorrect,and everything in Q2 was impure, please urgently advise us on what measures we should take to pray salah now, before everything is purified, because we are all praying as normal.
Jazakumullahu khayran for your time.


Answer

The default ruling regarding purity is that everything is considered pure unless one is either sure that it has become impure (for example if one has seen impurity fall on it), or can detect signs of impurity, such as color or smell, on it after the fact. Mere doubt or suspicion that something may have become impure does not overturn certainty regarding its previous state of purity, and the item or place will continue to be considered pure.  I would advise you to keep this default ruling in mind and avoid suspicion regarding the purity of things around you. If you find yourself plagued with these doubts too often, perhaps it would be advisable for you to seek professional help to overcome them.

The only spot in your house that you are certain has become impure is the area of the carpet on which your child actually urinated. The methods that you have employed so far for purifying that area have not sufficed. If the carpet is stuck to the ground and cannot be removed, as seems to be the case, then you would pour water on it three times and each time remove the water to the best of your ability by, for example, absorbing it with a cloth or sucking it out with a carpet cleaning machine. In case you are absorbing the water with a cloth, you would use a pure cloth each time (so you would have to wash the cloth and wring it three times before every application, or use a different cloth each time). Enough of the water has to be drawn out that if the carpet was allowed to drip, it would stop dripping. If even after three times you continue to detect the colour or smell of urine on that part of the carpet, you would continue the process of pouring water and drawing it out until the signs of the impurity are completely gone.

However, rest assured that even though the carpet has not yet been purified, you do not have to be concerned about the impurity from it spreading. This is because impurity spreads through the transfer of moisture and as your carpet has become dry the impurity would not have spread. Even if the area was stepped on with wet feet, the urine would generally not transfer onto the foot, infact the water from the foot would transfer onto the carpet and not the other way round as the carpet is dry. The foot would only became impure in the case where the urine actually transferred onto the feet and the feet begin to smell of urine and the floor, furniture or prayer mats etc. that were stepped on with those feet would also have to smell of urine in order for those areas to be considered impure. Since there is no urine smell coming from anywhere else in the house, you should dismiss your doubts regarding the spread of the impurity. Such doubts as they are from Shaytan, and you should try your utmost to curb them. The rules of the shari’ah are clear and should be our benchmark rather than our own suspicions.

Answered by:
Apa Myra Hamid

Checked & Approved by:
Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Mufti Zubair Patel