How Far Can Impurities Spread on The Floor if My Cat Leaves Crumbs on The Floor?

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

Is food like beef and chicken not halal-certified impure (najis)? What can one do if someone owns a cat with limited halal-certified pet food options? Sometimes, my cat makes a mess and leaves crumbs on the floor. If I step on these crumbs, how far will the impurities spread across the floor? Allah reward you for your help.

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

I pray you are in good faith and health.

Cat food that is not halal-certified is impure (najis). If you notice any visible crumbs, clean the area thoroughly to ensure there are no traces of them left. To do this, you could use a carpet cleaner. Additionally, when you perform your prayers, please make sure you perform a fresh wudu, take off your socks, and lay down a prayer mat wherever you choose to pray.

Excusable Amount of Filth

A small amount of filth affecting one’s clothing, person, or item would be excused and would not affect the validity of one’s prayer but recommended to be removed.

A small amount is defined as the extent of:
Five grams of solid filth or
Five centimeters in diameter of liquid filth.

In the Hanafi school, the excused amount of liquid filth is approximately 5cm in diameter and approximately 5 grams in solid filth. Although one is excused, to pray with that amount is disliked and entails wrong, yet not sinful. Praying with filth less than that amount is disliked, yet does not entail doing wrong. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah; `Ala al-Din `Abidin, al-Hadiyya al-`Ala’iyya]

I would like you to go through the valuable answers and links below. You will receive guidance and direction in sha Allah.

Check these links:
Household Cats & Rulings Related to Purity and Filth – SeekersGuidance
Is It Permissible to Purchase Cat Food? – SeekersGuidance
Dealing With Misgivings of Impurity – SeekersGuidance
How to Apply the Rulings regarding Transfer of Impurities? (seekersguidance.org
How Do I Hand-Wash Clothes To Remove Impurities? – SeekersGuidance

Why not begin your search for knowledge by signing up for a course on SeekersAcademy (seekersguidance.org), like from the Islamic Studies Curriculum (seekersguidance.org) or Youth Islamic Studies Curriculum (seekersguidance.org), building your way up doing each course?

I pray this helps answer your question.

[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Mawlana Ilyas Patel has received traditional education in various countries. He started his schooling in the UK and completed his hifz of the Quran in India. After that, he joined an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied secular and Aalimiyya sciences. Later, he traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, and other Middle Eastern countries to further his education. Mawlana has served as an Imam in the Republic of Ireland for several years and taught the Quran and other Islamic sciences to both children and adults. He also worked as a teacher and librarian at a local Islamic seminary in the UK for 12 years. Presently, he lives in the UK with his wife and is interested in books and gardening.