Washing clothes stained with dog saliva in a washing machine

3-9-2009 | IslamWeb

Question:

Salamualaikum wr wb,
I had some clothes that has dog saliva on it. First i put one clothe in the washing machine, and when that finished, i put the other one in the washing machine. Now I have doubts. Do I need to clean the washing machine with dirt? and should i also clean the drier machine?

---

Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

 

It is not obligatory to clean the washing machine or the drier with dirt even if you are sure that both were stained by dog saliva. That is because dirt may spoil the machine. Soap and other detergents are enough to remove impurity of the dog even with the ability to use dirt. This is the view of many scholars and the preponderant opinion we adopt here in Islamweb, as we previously clarified in Fatwa 95439. We think that turning on the washing machine after adding soap is sufficient to clean if (the machine) in case dog's saliva makes it impure, particularly if the machine is of the model which always changes (fills and drains) water during washing.

Allaah Knows best.