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بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon His Messenger, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

Wa ʿalaykum al-Salām wa Raḥmatullāhi wa Barakātuh.

First, we want to reassure you that Islam is a religion of ease, and Allah does not expect you to burden yourself with endless doubts about purification. Your concern for cleanliness and the correctness of your worship is understandable. However, these concerns should not lead to unnecessary hardship, repeated washing or constant fear of impurity.

From what you have described, you appear to be experiencing persistent waswas (intrusive doubts) concerning purification. The most important thing to understand is that you are not required to act upon suspicions, imagined possibilities or recurring doubts. Only when impurity is genuinely established through clear and reliable evidence do you need to take the necessary action.

You do not have to keep checking until you feel completely certain or mentally satisfied. Once you have performed purification in the normal manner, you should consider it complete and move on.

Allah says:

مَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيَجْعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْ حَرَجٍ وَلَٰكِنْ يُرِيدُ لِيُطَهِّرَكُمْ

"Allah does not intend to make difficulty for you, but He intends to purify you." (Al-Māʾidah 5:6)

Remember that ignoring unfounded doubts is not negligence in religious practice. Rather, it is following the guidance of Islamic jurisprudence. You should not feel guilty for refusing to act upon such doubts.

Islamic scholars have consistently advised people troubled by excessive doubts to refrain from acting upon them. Imām al-Nawawī, in al-Majmūʿ Sharḥ al-Muhadhdhab (vol. 1, p. 207), discusses excessive caution in purification and warns against allowing waswas to disturb one's life and religious duties. He also cites Abū Muḥammad al-Juwaynī's criticism of unnecessary washing based on imagined impurities.

The practical guidance for your situation is straightforward:

• Complete istinjāʾ, wuḍūʾ and ghusl in the normal manner without repeated washing.

• Do not search for imagined impurities or repeatedly inspect your body and clothes.

• Trust your normal laundry routine and use the clothes kept among your clean garments.

• Do not repeat purification because you cannot remember every detail of what you did.

• When doubts arise, disregard them rather than attempting to resolve every possibility.

At first, ignoring these thoughts may feel uncomfortable. You may still feel that something is wrong. That feeling alone is not evidence of impurity, and you do not have to respond to it.

Since these difficulties have continued for several months and are significantly affecting your daily routine, we also encourage you to seek professional support. Persistent fears of contamination accompanied by repeated washing and checking can sometimes be associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), including religious scrupulosity.

A qualified mental-health professional can assess your symptoms and recommend appropriate treatment. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), particularly exposure and response prevention (ERP), is an established treatment for such difficulties. Seeking professional assistance is entirely compatible with Islamic teachings and reliance upon Allah.

To help you understand the Islamic rulings more clearly, we will now address your specific concerns.

1. Certainty Is Not Removed by Doubt

One of the fundamental principles of Islamic jurisprudence is:

الْيَقِينُ لَا يَزُولُ بِالشَّكِّ

"Certainty is not removed by doubt."

A related principle states:

الْأَصْلُ فِي الْأَشْيَاءِ الطَّهَارَةُ

"The original ruling concerning things is purity."

This means that your body, clothes and surroundings are regarded as pure unless impurity is reliably established.

The Prophet ﷺ was asked about someone who imagined that he had passed wind during prayer. He replied:

لَا يَنْصَرِفْ حَتَّى يَسْمَعَ صَوْتًا أَوْ يَجِدَ رِيحًا

"He should not leave the prayer unless he hears a sound or detects an odour."

(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 137; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 361)

This hadith establishes that mere suspicion does not invalidate an existing state of purification. It does not mean that sound or smell is required in every case, but that uncertainty alone is insufficient.

Furthermore, scholars distinguish between ordinary doubts and persistent waswas. A person troubled by recurring obsessive doubts should disregard them rather than repeatedly investigate their validity.

2. Doubts About Urine Splashes and Bodily Discharges

You mentioned spending considerable time washing yourself because you suspect urine may have splashed onto your body.

If you merely suspect that urine has splashed onto you, you should ignore that suspicion. You are not required to examine your body, search for splashes or wash repeatedly.

If you genuinely know that urine has touched a particular area, washing that area normally is sufficient. There is no need to wash your entire body.

Likewise, sensations suggesting that urine or madhiy (pre-seminal fluid) may have been discharged do not establish that anything actually came out. You should not repeatedly inspect your clothes or private parts in response to such sensations.

Regarding dampness after sleep, not every wet patch indicates maniy (semen) or madhiy. Sweat and other ordinary causes must also be considered. A vague feeling of coldness or moisture does not automatically require ghusl.

The specific rulings concerning an established discharge remain applicable, but you should not investigate imagined possibilities or repeatedly examine your clothing.

3. Avoid Excessive Washing During Ghusl

You mentioned using more than 60 litres of water and spending over an hour performing ghusl.

Such excessive washing is unnecessary.

Anas ibn Mālik (RA) reported that the Prophet ﷺ used to perform ghusl with a ṣāʿ to five mudds of water and wuḍūʾ with one mudd. (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 201)

This demonstrates the simplicity of the Prophet's practice and the importance of avoiding unnecessary water consumption.

For a valid ghusl, you only need to fulfil its essential requirements, including ensuring that water reaches the body as prescribed by Islamic law.

Once you have done so in the normal manner, consider your ghusl complete. Do not repeat it merely because you subsequently wonder whether you missed something.

4. Are Clothes That May Have Been Previously Impure Considered Clean?

Your main concern relates to clothes that you remember being impure at some earlier time but cannot remember whether they were subsequently washed.

Ordinarily, if a particular garment is definitely known to be impure, its purification must be established before it is treated as clean. However, this principle should not be applied mechanically to recurring uncertainties arising from waswas.

You explained that your normal practice is to place clothes in your closet after receiving them from the laundry.

Therefore, you should rely on this established routine and treat clothes found in your clean-clothes closet as clean. You do not need to reconstruct their history or remember exactly when each garment was taken to the laundry.

The fact that a garment may have been impure in the past does not mean it should remain permanently suspect, especially when there is a reasonable indication that it has subsequently been washed.

Regarding clothes found inside laundry bags, if you cannot remember whether they were waiting to be washed or had already been cleaned, do not automatically declare them impure. The bag itself does not establish impurity. Treat the clothes according to their ordinary condition and reliable information, rather than imagined possibilities.

Only where you have definite, independent knowledge that a particular garment remains impure and has not been washed would ordinary cleansing be required.

In your circumstances, repeatedly questioning whether clothes have been washed is part of the pattern of waswas that you should avoid following.

To sum up

The essential guidance is simple: do not allow recurring doubts to determine your state of purification. Perform the required cleansing normally, rely on your established routines and disregard suspicions that are not supported by reliable evidence.

Islam does not require you to investigate every possible impurity or repeatedly perform acts of worship until your mind feels completely reassured.

Allah says:

يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ بِكُمُ الْيُسْرَ وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ الْعُسْرَ

"Allah intends ease for you, not hardship." (Al-Baqarah 2:185)

May Allah grant you peace of mind, relieve your difficulties and make your worship a source of tranquillity rather than anxiety.

And Allah knows best.