Eating and drinking with non-Muslims

Question

Question: (1) There are three people in my room, of whom I am the only Muslim, and both companions are non-Muslims: one of them is a Harijan Chamar (Harijan: a Hindu of the lowest, ‘untouchable’ castes; Chamar: an Indian caste of leatherworkers, regarded as low; of the “Scheduled Castes”), the other is from the “Backward” castes. I have no inclination at all to eat with them and so on, and I keep all my things separate, but they still keep using my utensils and the like.

Answer

(1, 2, 3) Whether a person is a Chamar by his caste and occupation or something else, when he is not soiled with impurity, his body and clothes are clean, he cooks or eats after washing his hands, and there is nothing haram in that food, he will not be called impure.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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