Is Cleaning Myself with Toilet Paper in the Bathroom Sufficient?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

Unfortunately, I don’t always have water to clean my penis after urinating. Is cleaning after urinating with just toilet paper sufficient. However, dust, lint, dander, and tiny pieces of toilet paper that have come into contact with urine continue to get stuck in my penis opening and on the glans next to the penis opening, and I cannot remove them with toilet paper. Can I pray like this with these impurities on my body and clothes? Are these impurities forgiven by Allah?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Cleaning oneself after urinating (as well as after passing stool) is an emphasized sunna act. That is, if the impurity does not spread beyond the area from which it came. [Tahtawi/Shurunbulali, Hashiyat Maraqi al-Falah]

What is meant by cleaning oneself is to wipe the area or wash or both. The sunna will be achieved by wiping, evening though washing is better and recommended when possible. [Ibid.]

If you wipe the tip of the penis after urinating, you have fulfilled the sunna to the basic level. Any small pieces of toilet paper can be ignored as they do not affect the ruling.

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 then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.