Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
The Question was about whether dry-cleaning purifies clothes or not? I have put this Question to Mufti Najeeb Khan from Darul-uloom Karachi. He told me that he investigated on this matter and found that it actually makes them NAJAS, due to the alcoholic substances that they use to clean your clothes. And Allah knows best,
Walaikum assalam,
Mufti Mahmoud Ashraf Usmani, a cousin of Mufti Taqi Usmani’s and fellow mufti at Darul Uloom Karachi, and one of the senior-most muftis of Pakistan, visited us in Amman, Jordan, twice, and I spoke to him at length about the issue of synthetic alcohol. As mentioned in the great fatwa collections written in the latter half of the 20th Century, such as Ahsan al-Fatawa, the top scholars of the Sub-Continent generally give the fatwa that alcohol from other than grapes, dates, and barley is not considered filthy (najis). It would not, however, be permitted to use as an intoxicant, or in ways intoxicants are used, or in an amount that intoxicates.
This is also the fatwa of many other major Hanafis, including Imam Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari, Shaykh Ahmad al-Zarqa, Shaykh Bakhit al-Muti`i, and others, as mentioned by Shaykh Abdal-Fattah Abu-Ghudda in his critical edition of (the first volume of) Mulla Ali al-Qari’s Fath Bab al-`Inaya.
Therefore, dry cleaning, which in some processes uses synthetic alcohol, would not render the clothes najis.
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani.