Removing sexual impurity

5-5-2005 | IslamWeb

Question:

Living with several people in the same house, my husband and I do not have the time before breakfast to do our Ghusl, now I have my mother in-law who has told me that we're not allowed in Islam to sit at the same table with her and her husband and my husband's brother and his wife because we have had a sexual contact and that we are not clean.
I don't know what to do because we can't take our shower in the evening everyone would hear us and at the time of the Morning Prayer we have the same problem. Personally I don't think the same thing she does but I just wanted to be sure that's why I write you. I'm sorry for my English, I'm from Holland.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

 

Dear sister, we ask Allaah to pour His blessings upon you and grant you steadfastness on His religion.

As for the saying of your mother in-law that a Muslim who must perform a ritual bath is impure and cannot sit, etc. is wrong. An impure person can practice all the natural acts such as eating, sitting with others, meeting people, shaking their hands, etc. he/she can even greet others with Salaam, supplicate Allaah, etc.

What is prohibited is mentioned in our Fatwa: 82789.

As for your concern that you cannot take a bath due to living with a family, we say that you may delay the bath as long as it does not cause delaying the prayers from their fixed times. Delaying prayers from their prescribed times is a major great sin. So, you have to perform a bath to perform the prayers in their fixed time. The excuse that other family members may know of your bath is not a valid reason to delay the bath. Allaah's right is more entitled to be observed than that of His creatures.

Allaah knows best.