whenever an alternative is available, as a precaution for health, to ward off harm, and out of refinement from what sound souls instinctively find repulsive.

Allah is the One who grants success. May blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his Companions.

Council of Senior Scholars

The Islamic Fiqh Council of the Muslim World League, at its eleventh session held in Makkah from Sunday 13 Rajab 1409 AH (19 February 1989 CE) to Sunday 20 Rajab 1409 AH, examined the question of the ruling on sewage water after it has been treated: Is it permissible to remove ritual states by performing wudu (ablution) or ghusl (full ritual bath) with it, and may physical impurities be washed away with it?

After consulting specialists in chemical treatment, who explained that purification is achieved by eliminating the impurity through four stages—sedimentation, aeration, germicidal treatment, and chlorination—so that no trace of impurity remains in taste, color, or odor, and given that these specialists are upright Muslims whose trustworthiness and integrity are beyond doubt, the Council reached the following decision:

If sewage water is purified by the aforementioned methods or their equivalents, and no trace of impurity remains in its taste, color, or odor, it becomes pure and purifying (tahur). It may be used to lift both minor and major ritual states and to remove physical impurities, in accordance with the juristic principle that a large body of water into which impurity has fallen is rendered pure once the impurity disappears and no trace of it remains. And Allah knows best.