Air-Conditioner Condensate

Ruling (Ḥukm): AC condensation water is, in its original nature, Māʾ Muţlaq (مَاء مُطْلَق), provided that no impurity (najāsah) has entered it and no substance has mixed with it in a way that changes its essential nature. Therefore, the fact that the water has come out of an air conditioner does not, by itself, make the water impure. If the AC condensation water is clean and has not been contaminated with najāsah, then using it for wuḍūʾ and ghusl is permissible in principle.

Evidence (Dalīl):

وهو أي الماء الطهور الباقي على خلقته أي صفته التي خلق عليها حقيقةً بأن لم يطرأ عليه شيء، أو حكماً كالمتغير بمكث أو طحلب والمتصاعد من بخارات الحمامات ثم يقطر.

Meaning: “It (the purifying water) is water that remains as it was originally created—that is, its intrinsic quality remains upon its original state—either literally (ḥaqīqatan), in that nothing has affected it, or by legal recognition (ḥukman), such as water changed by standing (mukth) or algae, or steam rising from bathhouses which then condenses into drops.”

— Kashshāf al-Qināʿ ʿan Matn al-Iqnāʿ fī al-Fiqh al-Ḥanbalī, Kitāb al-Ṭahārah, Baḥth al-Miyāh, Section 1 (al-Māʾ al-Ṭahūr), 1/18, Ansār al-Sunnah al-Muḥammadiyyah, 1366 AH.

وهو أي الطهور الباقي على خلقته، سواءٌ كان من الماء النازل من السماء كالمطر وذوب الثلج والبرد، أو ماء الأنهار والعيون والآبار والبحار، ولو تصاعد ثم قطر كبخارات النجاسات، وما يستخرج بالكنداسات ونحوها.

Meaning: “It (the purifier) is that which remains upon its original created state ... whether it is water descending from the sky such as rain, melted snow and hail, or the water of rivers, springs, wells and seas—even if it rises as vapour and then condenses into drops, such as vapour from impurities [i.e. as a comparison of the physical process], and what is extracted by condensers (kandāsāt) and the like.”

— Ḥāshiyat al-Rawḍ al-Murbiʿ Sharḥ Zād al-Mustaqniʿ fī al-Fiqh al-Ḥanbalī, Kitāb al-Ṭahārah, Anwāʿ al-Miyāh, Section 2 (al-Māʾ al-Ṭāhir), 1/60, Dār al-Fikr, Beirut, Lebanon.

الماء الطهور أو المطلق هو الطاهر في نفسه المطهر لغيره، وهو كل ماء نزل من السماء أو نبع من الأرض ما دام باقياً على أصل الخلقة، فلم يتغير أحد أوصافه الثلاثة ... ويشمل الماء الذي ينعقد على صورة حيوان أو ينعقد ملحاً أو يرشح ويتبخر بخار ماء، لأنه ماءٌ حقيقةً.

Meaning: “Purifying or absolute water (al-māʾ al-Ṭahūr aw al-muţlaq) is that which is pure in itself and purifying for other than itself; it is any water that has descended from the sky or sprung from the earth, so long as it remains upon its original created state, none of its three characteristics [colour, taste, smell] having changed ... and it includes water that solidifies into the form of an animal [e.g. ice-forms], or solidifies into salt, or seeps out and evaporates as water vapour—because it is water in reality.”

— Al-Fiqh al-Islāmī wa-Adillatuh, Part 1: al-ʿIbādāt, Chapter 1: al-Ṭahārāt, Section 1: al-Ṭahārah, Discussion 4: Types of Water, Type 1 (al-Māʾ al-Ṭahūr aw al-Muţlaq), 1/264–265, Maktabah Rashīdiyyah.