 Salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Welcome to Ehqam SOS, the show that discusses the Islamic duties and responsibilities by His Eminence, the Grand Ayatullah, Sayyid Salat al-Sharazi. I'm your host, Mosul Insha'a, and joining me is Sheikh Ali Ma'ash. Salamu alaykum, sheikhna. Wa alaykum as-salam wa rahmatullahi. And today's discussion, insha'Allah, will be on visiting the washroom. Sheikhna, I remember when I was growing up and studying Fikr, there was a very, very important role in regards to facing the Qibla, that you can't face or have something, or have your back towards the Qibla. Is this the same with Sayyid Sadiq? Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, wa salallahu ala Muhammadin wa ala alayhi al-Tayyibin al-Tahireen. Initially, just a brief introduction. Islam is one of the best and purest religion that offers purity, especially with regard to using the washroom and the bathroom. Unlike other religions, other cultures, you would see that many of them would just walk through that place and relieve themselves and they come out without washing, for example. And I remember one of the converts to Islam, one of the European converts, he said to me that Islam is such pure that it made me convert to Islam due to the purity that it had. So Alhamdulillah, this is one of the graces of Allah, that He gave the believers that they purify themselves, even for the wudhu as well, it is purification and tatheer. The Sayyid says it is wajib that you avoid sitting towards the qiblah when you are in the toilet or the position either in the front or the back is towards the qiblah. So either way, you make sure that you do not sit and relieve yourself while you are towards the qiblah or the qiblah is in the back, backside. And the best solution for that is, well, if it is a fixed toilet, then you have to move your body, your shoulders, your chest away from the qiblah. So you really adjust your seating position away from the qiblah and that is sufficient. You do not have to rip out the toilet and make a new toilet and move it to the side or something like that. If that is the case where you want to sit down normally, then you have to rip the toilet and then actually divert it to a different direction of the qiblah. But otherwise, if somebody is comfortable with it, they can actually sit either in the left or to the right side of the toilet and they can actually sit down. Otherwise, they have to actually change the whole set. Is there an exception for this rule or any exceptions? Yes, for the children, if they go and sit in the toilet themselves, then you do not have to force them to move them, even if it is towards the qiblah. So for the children, because usually the children, they are not in a position of reaching the level of adolescence and the ahkam would not be wajib on them. Sheikhna, are there any places where we are not allowed to go to the washroom or we are not allowed to relieve ourselves? Well, there are five places where the one cannot actually relieve themselves in these places. And of course, we don't want to commit sins for that cause and try to ignore this issue. And it is mainly a social issue, it has to do with social. The first place which is mentioned in the Risaleh, it is the dead and narrow streets. There are a couple of houses in that dead and narrow and that street is actually shared by those neighbours. So we are not allowed actually to use this place. Are you talking about outside in public? Are you talking about using one of their bathrooms? No, it is outside because that dead and narrow now belongs to those neighbours. So you cannot actually, it's like a private road, in other words. You have to ask permission if you want to do anything from the neighbours. So you are not allowed to actually use that road as a toilet or relieving yourself, unless with the permission. And similarly, it's to do with the free passage paths as well. Again, which have no dead ends, again, it is used mainly by people in the streets. So it's actually a social issue as well. So we try to actually avoid annoying people, you know, the smell, the look of the streets. It would cause a health issue as well. So if anything that causes and harms people, it becomes haram to harm people. The second category is in the property of a person, in the house of a person, in a building belongs to somebody who does not give the permission to use the, for example, toilet. So again, because if I go without the permission, it becomes a gossip. It's like usurping this place, which is the act of usurping itself haram. Nevertheless, the act of using their toilets. So we have to avoid this as well. It is a requirement and we need the permission. If they didn't give it, then we're not allowed to use. The third category is also in the places that are dedicated to particular people. Let's say somebody comes and says, well, this building is only for the house of students. Or it's only for the elderly, for the disabled. Nobody can access and use. Again, this becomes like Waqf. Okay, so for example, in today's day and age, when we're at a shop or something, we see sometimes staff toilets. Exactly. We're not allowed to use those unless we have permission. Of course. That's only for the staff and you have to ask permission. So we try to avoid these places unless if the permission given, then that's fine. Or even some restaurants, for example, the washrooms are only for the customers. Paying customers, yes. So that's also we have to consider as well. When we go there, we make sure we buy something at least. And then we can use the washroom there. The fourth one is by the graveyard of the believers of the Mu'min. Okay. It's just to respect the Mu'min's dignity. And when he was alive, now he's dead. So we still respect that Mu'min, although he's dead and in his grave, but we're not allowed to actually breach this respect of the Mu'min, although it's a grave. The fifth one is in the respected places. The sanctity of the mosques, for example, the greatness of the mosques and the holy shrines of Ahl-e-Baitz and such like we spend them all. Again, we're not allowed to use the actual place where people worship. We do all they sit, the surroundings in the courtyard, for example. We're not allowed actually to use them for this purpose, for relieving. We need to go to the designated washroom. Exactly. Every mosque, every holy shrine, they have their own designated bathrooms, washrooms, you can go there and use them, but it's not inside. Or even the outside, it's also a breach to the sanctifying and respecting that holy shrine or mosque. Again, outside the same as inside. So anything that causes indignity, disrespect to the one, as I've mentioned, as a grave yard of the Mu'min, or the holy shrines or the mosques or the holy places of Muslims, that's also forbidden. That's right. So, Sheikh, in regards to the washroom, we know this is where we go to relieve ourselves. We know that this place can be highly contaminated with Najasa. Is it safe to say that the washroom is Tahir or is it safe to say that it is Najis? So if I'm in the bathroom, maybe I'll take my jacket off or something before I go. If it scrapes the floor or if it drops on the floor, do I say that this is Najis now or is it Tahir? Well, again, the rule is that everything is Tahir unless you are certain that it's Najis. You see it or somebody tells you about the Najasa. In overall, when you walk in a bathroom or a washroom and you see nothing, no signs of Najasa, of impurities, then it's Tahir. You drop your pen and it's wet, for example. The floor is wet or the tap is wet, for example. They're all Tahir unless, as I've said, you see the Najasa yourself or somebody tells you about that this place is Najis, then you have to avoid it. And that's the rule, basically. Sheikh, I get this question asked a lot. If it's time for prayer and I'm not sure if I want to go toilet or not. I have wudhu but I'm not sure that do I really desperately need the toilet or I can hold it and I can go pray and I can go afterwards. What is the correct thing to do at that moment? Well, the best thing always is to, before, this is one of the adab and the manners of wudhu and Sara, basically the one who wants to meet Allah swt in the prayer, to face Allah and stand before His Lord and speak to Him. You have to be ready in terms of the purity, in terms of internal purity and outside purity. So you have to make sure that you've relieved yourself from the excess amounts of the liquids you have and then you come to the wudhu, you do the wudhu and you stand before Allah swt with humbleness and comfortness and you start your worship and your Salat so Allah swt. So it's better for the one to prepare themselves before we actually start the ibadah. Sheikh, are you familiar with the story in regards to the man that was urinating in the mosque and the Rasulullah told him, people are going to approach this person but Rasulullah told him not to because this person comes from a different area. I mean, what is the ahqam rulings in that situation? What are we supposed to do? Well, in overall, making the masjid, the mosque, najis, it's self-haram and forbidden and if any Muslim sees an ajaseh, they should straight away, even before they pray, they have to purify and make that place tahrir and pure and then they go to begin their Salat. So it's important for the believers and omanin to take care of these things and to avoid making the mosque in somehow impure or even dirty, for example, leaving their tissues, used tissues or papers or anything else on the floor. To make, I mean, these holy places, as if it was our own homes and houses. So we try to avoid in somehow disrespecting these places because others would come and also use it. So if they see, for example, rubbish or impurities, they would avoid coming to the mosque and Allah knows how many narrations are there encouraging Muslims to go and pray, in the mosque and attend the mosque, in a narration which says that the one who is neighbor and next to the mosque, his prayer is not really accepted in that level that if he's prayed in the mosque, would he be accepted more? And he would get more thawab and reward. So if somebody goes there and misses around the mosque and he just ignores the teachings of Islam in terms of the purity and tahaara and cleanliness, then that's against the teachings and the manners of Islam. Shaykhana, some of our brothers and sisters require care. Physically, they can't move themselves. Some of them can't even go to the washroom by themselves. What's the ahqaum rules on that? Is their care allowed to assist them? Is he allowed to see and help take care of the patient? Well, as I've mentioned, it is haram and forbidden for the one to see other private parts and they have to cover it, especially in the bathroom while washing or using the toilet, for example. And for those who provide care and assistance, they have to make sure they avoid looking and they try to assist as much as they can and they try to do their best to avoid seeing it because it's haram in all matters. Shaykhana, another issue is that most of us coming from the East, we use water to purify ourselves after we go to the toilet. Sometimes we don't have access to water here in the West. It's not practiced as much. They use tissue paper. What is the best advice you can give a moqalif? What to do in that situation? Well, there are two options. The first option is to actually take with yourself to the toilet, a bottle or a cup of water. And then with that moqalif with water, you can still purify yourself. As I've mentioned, for the urine, you must do twice. So two rinses with a little bit of water. If there are no water available around and you just walk inside and you're leaving yourself, then you can use the tissue for the moment, but the najasa and the impurity remains there. So you have to go back home, wash yourself, make tatheer, and even if the underwear was also nejes, you change it, you make it pure. And then that's it. You prepare yourself for the Ibad of the Salah with the pure clothes and pure body. Thank you very much, Shaykhana. And thank you to the viewers for joining us on this discussion. I hope it was very informative for yourselves. If you have any questions that you would like to discuss, we've asked on Ehqam. Please send them into the contact details provided and Shaykhana will answer them as soon as he can. Until next time, stay safe, stay clean. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.