Assalaamu alaykum. It is a dire necessity to have clean, unpolluted water for our servival. Nowadays, there are hundreds of pollutants in our drinking water. In order to eliminate pollutants, water filters are used, but 100 percent of water filters in Canada and USA have nano particles of silver to disinfect water. If we do not use a water filter, then we have to drink polluted water. Now the question is: in such dire necessity, are we allowed to drink from a filter in which nano silver paricles are used?

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

We could not find any statement of the scholars on the topic in reference in particular. We believe that there is no religious impediment to using silver as such. Scholars underlined that the basic principle is that all things are lawful unless proven otherwise through Sharia evidence, and the rationale that they mentioned for prohibiting the use of silver utensils does not apply here. The prohibition of using gold and silver in utensils and ornaments and the like – except for what was excluded – is due to the fact that it breaks the hearts of the poor and needy, because it involves arrogance and vanity, or because it affects the heart in such a way that it contradicts true servitude to Allah.

Ibn Al-Qayyim underlined the medicinal benefits of silver in his book Zaad Al-Ma‘aad. This indicates that silver was known to them in medical treatment and the like. He said, “Silver is one of the remedies that are beneficial and bring joy and drive away sadness, depression, weakness in the heart, and its palpitations. It is used in some of the best kinds of ointments and helps extract the harmful substances in the heart, especially when blended with pure honey and saffron. Silver is originally cold and dry, but it generates heat and moisture.”

Allah knows best.