Washing Clothes to Remove Sexual Impurity
11-1-2002 | IslamWeb
Question:
I have a couple of questions on how to remove Najas from a person's clothes or body: When there is Najas on my clothes, it is usually not a lot, I put the clothes that have the Najas on them with those that are dirty (but do not have a Najas on them) in the washing machine to wash them together. I put half a cup of soap (150-200 ml) on the clothes and turn the washing machine on. It washes, rinses and spins in about half an hour. Is this all right to clean my clothes from Najas or should I do something more? Also do I have to wash the clothes with Najas on them separate from those without Najas? Also I read a Fatwa by Dr. Atia Sakr of Al-Azhar saying that we are not to put soap on the water if we want to wash the clothes from Najas. However books of Fiqh say that as long as that water has not changed from being water by adding the soap on it, then we can use soapy water to clean from Najas. So is my using soap in the washing machine to clean the clothes from Najas all right or not? As I said the washing machine washes and then rinses the clothes with water only from the soap. But the resulting water after rinsing, always has soap in it. May Allah reward you the best of rewards for your efforts?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
If you put your impure clothes in a container with less than two Qullas (one Qulla equals 160.5 liters of water) of water, the water and the clothes remain impure.
Also, any clothes that are added to the same container [so that they will be washed along with the other impure clothes] become impure.
Therefore, if a person wants to purify clothes that are stained by an impurity, he should first pour pure water over them in order to purify them before putting them in the same container with other clothes. Pure water means that which is free from any other material that may spoil its color, taste or smell. Then, you can wash all clothes with any kind of detergent. Otherwise, you are allowed to wash all clothes with detergent and water, then pour or rinse them with pure water.
The water that comes from pouring water over impure clothes is of three kinds:
1. If this water is changed by impurity, then it becomes impure.
2. If this water is not changed before the clothes become pure, then it is also impure, because it lacks sufficient quantity. Squeezing such clothes does not purify them. The remaining quantity of water in the washed place is also impure.
3. If this water (of rinse) has not changed and was rinsed from the clothes that became pure, then it is pure according to the preponderant opinion.
This is the view of Imam Ash-Shaafi’i, since water in such last case, whether rinsed or connected, is pure and so is the washed place.
Allah knows best.