How Can I Determine if Something Is Impure When Taste and Smell Are Subjective?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

How can I determine if something is impure when taste and smell are subjective and may be imagined, especially in cases like water near a sink?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

Purity

The basis of all water is that it is pure until established with reasonable surety or certainty that it is impure. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

Reasonable surety requires a preponderance of evidence to establish. A bad taste or bad smell is not enough to establish impurity in themselves. This is because many things could cause water to smell or taste off. [Ibid.]

When to Consider Water Impure

That said, assume the water is pure and do not give it a second guess. If you know that there is a high likelihood that impurities contact a surface and in addition to that you find a smell like that of impurity and/or a taste to the same effect—then one can deem the area impure due to the totality of evidence pointing that direction.

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he went on to study at Darul Uloom Seminary in New York and completed his studies at Darul Mustafa in Tarim, Yemen.

There, he completed the memorization of the Quran and his study of Islamic Sciences. Throughout his years of study, he was blessed to learn from many great scholars: Habib Umar bin Hafiz, Habib Kazhim al-Saqqaf, Shaykh ‘Umar bin Husayn al-Khatib, and others.

Upon returning, he joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.