Understanding Impurity from Intercourse: Cleaning Guidelines for Bedding”
Question: If discharge occurs on the bed during intercourse, does the bed become impure, and is it enough to wash only that area, or do we need to wash the entire bed if our hands touch it?
Answer: If semen gets onto the bed due to intercourse, it’s sufficient to wash only the area affected by the semen. There’s no need to wash the entire bed. In this regard, there’s a hadith in Sunan Ibn Majah.
Narrated from Amr bin Maymoon: "I asked Sulaiman bin Yasar about a garment which gets semen on it. 'Should I wash it off or wash the entire garment?' Sulaiman said: 'Aishah said: "Semen used to get on the garment of the Messenger of Allah and he would wash it off his garment, then he would go out to pray wearing that garment, and I could see the marks left on it by washing."
This hadith shows that washing only the part of the bed affected by semen is enough. Contact with hands or body parts doesn’t render the rest of the bed impure, so there’s no need to wash the whole bed—just clean the visible area.
Respondent: Sheikh Maqbool Ahmed Salafi Hafizahullah
Jeddah Dawah Center, Saudi Arabia
Interpreter: Hasan Fuzail