3. The Prophet’s statement concerning the water with which a fasting person breaks his fast: “For it is purifying.” (1) That is, purification is attained through it. Neither Allah, Mighty and Majestic, nor the Prophet ﷺ mentioned anything other than water through which purification is attained.

4. The hadith of Anas, may Allah be pleased with him: “A Bedouin entered the mosque and urinated in one part of it. The people rebuked him, but the Prophet ﷺ stopped them. When he had finished urinating, he ordered that a bucketful of water be poured over it.” (2) The Prophet ﷺ did not leave it for the sun to purify.

This is the well-known position of the madhhab: water is a condition for removing impurity. Thus, if there were something rendered impure and exposed to the sun—such as urine on the ground—and, after many days and the sun’s passing over it, it disappeared completely and its traces were gone, it would not become purified; rather, water would still be necessary.

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Abu Hanifah, may Allah have mercy on him, held that the sun purifies an impure object when it removes the trace of the impurity, and that whenever the substance of the impurity is removed by any means, the affected place becomes pure. (3) This is the correct view, for the following reasons: