Q: I am the only Muslim at home and I eat what I separately cook (halaal meat, etc). My non-Muslim family cooks meat I have no information about, they also eat salami that contains pork, etc. When the cook meat splashes of fat can fall on kitchen appliances (kettle, oven itself, etc). But what bothers me the most is that it splashes also on a kitchen towel, because it hangs on an oven hand. They can also touch this towel after touching meat or other haram products and then they use the same towel to dry dishes after washing them. When I use kitchen appliances I wash them 3 times under the water as I was told. Now I have some questions to you. Please don’t answer any of questions out of pity. JazakAllahu khairan
1. Do I need to wash dishes before using them 3 times? Is holding them under the water for a while enough or a hand must be used to wash them 3 times?
2. If I know my mother cooked some soup or dish with no meat and haram ingredients, can I eat it too knowing that she didn’t wash anything 3 times as I do or I have to make myself something simple, like boil pasta, fried egg, etc? Hunger is not a problem for me, just want to make sure all is halal in shaa Allah.
3. As in 2., if there is nothing else except bread to eat, can I eat that food? Eating just bread is no problem for me, just want to make sure I am not overacting and not making life difficult for nothing. And if there is no bread as an option?
4. If I see how my family cuts salami and then with the same hands touch bread, the box where we keep the bread or other objects, a) can I eat that bread too afterwards? Obviously they touched it and cut a piece for themselves, but what about the rest, is it contaminated for me now? B) do I have to always wash my hands after touching objects that I saw them touching with najasa hands? If yes, then should soap be used always or if I feel that the fat is being washed away with just water will it be enough in shaa Allah?
5. If I feel no fat on the object, but it’s an object from my suspicious list of objects they touch every day, is water enough or soap must be used?
6. If there is nothing else for me to eat and I know that this particular dish is cooked with products that are A) suspicious or B) clearly having some ingredients haram (like alcohol or animal fat), am I allowed to eat it or better to stay hungry? Is haram allowed only when you are dying from hunger or also when there is nothing else to eat too? Please answer for A and B..
7. Soon I will leave my job in shaa Allah due to mixing with men and will have to eat what is bought on my family’s money, does it mean I have to avoid suspicious dishes (with no meat) and cook pasta or eggs, for myself all the time? I don’t want my family to say that I use products when there is a dish to eat and that Islam makes me do strange things (for their understanding)
8. If I wash dishes that were used to cook haram meat, and splashes of water mixed with fat and liquid soap fall on my clothes, should I change it for salah, should I wash it under the flush (water jet) or rubbing a place 3 times with wet hands is sufficient in shaa Allah?
A:
1. If the dishes may have had some impure substances then wash them before using them.
2. If there is no substantial reason to believe that the dishes were contaminated you may eat.
3. Yes.
4. You should abstain
You do not have to wash your hands.
5. Just washing with water is enough.
6. If you are not sure whether it is haraam you may eat of it.
7. Request your parents to purchase the meat from some halaal store.
8. Don’t entertain these doubts.
And Allah Ta’ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
Answered by:
Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)