purity. When the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) said, “O Messenger of Allah, some people bring us meat, and we do not know whether they mentioned Allah’s name over it or not,” the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied: “Mention Allah’s name yourselves and eat it.”
Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), who narrated this hadith, said: “Those people had only recently left disbelief.” (1) Although, in this case, it was more likely that they had not mentioned Allah’s name, since they had only recently left disbelief, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) nevertheless did not instruct them to ask or investigate.
It is also narrated that Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) and Amr ibn al-As passed by the owner of a water basin. Amr ibn al-As asked its owner, “Is this impure or not?” Umar said to him, “Owner of the basin, do not tell us.” (2)
In another narration, water from a gutter had splashed upon them, so Umar said, “Owner of the gutter, do not tell us.”
Rational consideration likewise supports this: the basic presumption is that a thing remains as it was unless a change becomes evident. Accordingly, if someone passes beneath a gutter and water from it splashes onto him, and he says, “I do not know whether this came from lavatories or from washed clothes, and whether it came from washing impure clothes or pure clothes,” we say: