The second line of reasoning is this: these possibilities do not arise here, or are so remote that they should be disregarded. Paying attention to them imposes a hardship that has no place in religion and amounts to obsessive misgivings prompted by Satan.

The bowls and other vessels that people take into bathhouses are presumed pure. The possibility of their being impure is weaker than that of the containers in merchants’ shops. If vessels containing oils, milk, vinegar, dough, and other liquid, solid or moist substances are judged pure, without regard to such obsessive misgivings, then how much more so people’s bowls!

As for the objection that these bowls fall onto the ground: yes, they do. But the ground around the basins is undoubtedly pure, since purity is its presumed state. The water, lote leaves, mallow, saltwort, soap and other substances that fall onto it are pure. The bodies of men and women in a state of major ritual impurity are also pure. It is established in al-Sahīh, in a hadith narrated by Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) met him on one of the roads of Medina. He said:

“I slipped away from him, bathed, and then returned to him. He asked, ‘Where were you?’ I replied, ‘I was in a state of major ritual impurity, and I did not want to sit with you while in that state.’ He said, ‘Glory be to Allah! A believer does not become impure.’”

The leading scholars unanimously agree that the body of a person in a state of major ritual impurity is pure, that his sweat is pure, and that a garment bearing his sweat is pure. Even if a person in this state were to fall