the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, instructed us not to cleanse ourselves with fewer than three stones.” (1)

His statement, “for every discharge,” means every discharge from the two passages. Wind is excepted from this, because it leaves no trace; it is merely air. Since it leaves no trace in the area, washing it is not obligatory, for washing it in that case would be a kind of needless action. Whether it makes a sound or not, it is pure, even if it has an offensive smell.

Some scholars held that wind is impure and that the area must therefore be washed after it. (2) The correct view is that it is pure, because it has no tangible substance.

One implication of this is that if wind passes from you while your clothes are wet, it will come into contact with moisture. If we say that it is impure, then whatever it touches must be washed; but if we say that it is pure, washing is not required.

We do not say that this gives rise to the question mentioned by some jurists: if a person praying were to carry a waterskin filled with intestinal gas, would his prayer be valid? This is impossible. Yet some scholars are overly fond of devising unusual hypothetical cases, whereas it is better to leave such matters aside, lest jurists be criticized for imagining such rare scenarios, which may in fact be impossible.

Also excepted from this is semen. Although it is a discharge from one of the two passages and thus falls under the general wording, “for every discharge,” it is pure; and no post-relief cleansing is required for something pure.