3—The carcass of a human being, due to the general import of the Prophet’s saying: “Indeed, the believer does not become impure.” (1) Also, when a person dies, he is washed; were he impure, washing him would be of no benefit.

4—The carcass of creatures that have no flowing blood—that is, blood which flows when they are killed or injured—such as flies, locusts, and scorpions. The evidence for this is the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “If a fly falls into the drink of one of you, let him immerse it, then remove it.” (2)

His words, “let him immerse it,” include immersing it in hot water. If it is immersed in hot water, it dies; and had it rendered the water impure, the Messenger ﷺ would have commanded that it be poured out.

To the preceding principles we add a fourth: purity does not necessarily entail lawfulness.

His words, “except for hair and the like”: the jurists—may Allah have mercy on them—stipulated that hair and the like must be cut off, rather than plucked out (3). For if it is plucked out, some of the carcass remains congested in its roots. This is especially apparent in feathers. As for hair, it is not apparent, though in reality it is embedded in the skin and comes into direct contact with impurity.

From this, we learn that carcasses are divided into three categories: