Chapter on Vessels¹
It is permissible to acquire and use any pure container, even an expensive one, except those made of gold or silver or plated with either metal.
Ritual purification remains valid when performed with water kept in either of those vessels² or in a vessel that has been usurped.
A container reinforced with a small silver band³ is permissible provided the band is not for adornment.
The vessels and garments of non-Muslims are pure.
Nothing is declared impure merely on the basis of doubt so long as its impurity has not been confirmed.
The bones, horns, claws, hooves, tendons, and hides of an animal that has died without lawful slaughter are impure and are not purified by tanning⁴.
Hair, wool⁵, and feathers are pure when taken from an animal whose body was pure while alive, even if that species is not normally eaten, such as a cat or a mouse⁶.
(1) He titled the section for a given subject and then broadened it, which is not considered a defect; see al-Labadi’s marginal notes, p. 14. By “broadened” he means that, at the end of the chapter, the author treats the rulings on non-Muslims’ clothes, on combining doubtful cases, and on hair, wool, and similar matters—items that are not utensils. Such a digression is acceptable because it remains contextually related.
(2) In manuscripts A and B the reading is “biha” (with it); the same appears in manuscript N.
(3) Manuscript B adds the phrase “lihaja” (for a need), while manuscript N has “fiddah” (silver) in the indefinite form.
(4) Following al-Iqna, vol. 1, p. 21; al-Muntaha, vol. 1, p. 12, states: “Tanning the hide of an animal that died impure and using it thereafter is permissible.”
(5) Manuscript N adds the word “wal-wabr” (and fur).
(6) The verb “kanat” (was) is absent in manuscripts A and B.