بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Q: What’s the ruling on the saliva, drool, and vomit of an infant?
A: The fundamental ruling as it relates to objects/things is (a state of) purity. So the infant’s saliva, drool, and vomit are pure, to be more precise the vomit of humans (man or child) is pure as there is no evidence pointing towards its impurity, nor is there anyone fit to be taken as a proof that has conveyed it being impure, on the contrary it is pure. A baby vomits abundantly, its saliva and drool do not cease to flow onto the one providing care for it. Consequently it is an affair in which adversity prevails (as it relates to the removal of these things). Therefore the legislator has not enacted the washing of clothes as it pertains to that. He has not prevented prayer due to it, nor has He ordered being cautioned from the baby’s saliva.
As for the reported consensus that man’s vomit is impure, it is nothing more than an invalid claim due to the opposition of Ibn Hazm where he explicitly states the purity of man’s vomit. Likewise as Imaam Ash-Shawkani and Siddeeq Hasan Khan both did not count vomit along with impurities, on the contrary they held, to be more probable, the purity of man’s vomit in the unrestricted sense. This is due to the fundamental ruling being purity and there is nothing reported about it except authentic conveyance (concerning its ruling) that are not contradicted by what equals it or (by what) preceded it.
Translated by Najeeb Al Anjelesi
Source: أربعون سؤالاً في أحكام المولود