playing with the matter. How can he intend to renew his ablution when he is not in a state of ablution? Renewal is only possible when a person is already in a state of purity.

“If he intends a recommended ghusl, it suffices in place of an obligatory one,” …

His statement: “If he intends a recommended ghusl, it suffices in place of an obligatory one.” An example is when someone performs ghusl after washing a deceased person, or performs ghusl before entering the state of ihram, or for standing at Arafah. These are recommended ghusls. The same applies to the Friday ghusl according to the majority of scholars, though the correct view is that it is obligatory.

The apparent meaning of the author’s words—and this is the madhhab—is that this applies even if he remembers that he is required to perform an obligatory ghusl. Some of the companions restricted this to the case where he has forgotten his state of ritual impurity (1)—that is, forgotten that he is in a state of major ritual impurity. If he has not forgotten, then his state of impurity is not removed, because the recommended ghusl is not performed on account of ritual impurity. And if it is not performed on account of ritual impurity, the Prophet ﷺ said: “Actions are only by intentions” (2). This man intended only the recommended ghusl, while knowing and remembering that he is in a state of major ritual impurity. How, then, can the ritual impurity be removed?

This view—namely, restricting it to the case in which he has forgotten—has a reasonable basis.

The reasoning of the madhhab is that, since a recommended ghusl is a legislated purification, it removes ritual impurity. Yet there is a weakness in this reasoning, for there is no doubt that it is a prescribed ghusl; but it ranks below the obligatory ghusl required for major ritual impurity. How then can a recommended act be strong enough to suffice for the higher obligatory one?