cooking food with impure fuel: if the food is cooked through, its ruling is like that of heated water. Firing pottery with impure fuel is comparable, in being disliked, to heating water with no barrier between it and the fire. And Allah knows best.

He was asked:

“Is the urine of animals whose meat is lawful to eat impure?”

He answered:

Most of the early Muslims held that the urine and dung of animals whose meat is lawful to eat are not impure. This is the position of Mālik, Ahmad, and others. It is said that none of the Companions held them to be impure. Rather, the view that they are impure arose later, with no precedent among the Companions.

We have discussed this question at length in a separate book, presenting more than ten proofs from the Sharia showing that these substances are not impure. Those who consider them impure have no evidence whatsoever from the Sharia for their impurity. The most they have relied upon is the Prophet’s saying, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Guard yourselves against urine.”

They assumed that this applies universally in all cases, but that is not so. The definite article here refers to something already understood, and the urine understood here is human urine. The evidence for this is his saying:

“Guard yourselves against urine, for most of the punishment in the grave is because of it.”

It is well known that most of the punishment in