Book of Purification
Introduction
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Book of Purification
Purification is the removal of ritual impurity and anything of like ruling, together with the elimination of tangible filth.
Water falls into three categories:
- Purifying (ṭahūr) — “it neither removes ritual impurity nor cleanses incidental filth other than itself” — that is, water which remains in the state in which it was created.
If its characteristics are altered by something that does not dissolve into it, such as pieces of camphor, oil, mineral salt, or if it is heated over something impure, using it becomes reprehensible (makrūh).
If the change comes from standing for a long time, or from what it is normally impossible to protect water from — vegetation that grows in it or leaves¹ that fall in — or from proximity to a carcass, or if it is heated by the sun or by a clean substance, its use is not reprehensible.
When water has been used for a recommended act of purification, such as renewing ablution, the Friday bath, or the second and third rinsings, re-using that water is reprehensible.
If the water reaches two qullahs — the amount considered “abundant,” about five hundred Iraqi ratls — and an impurity other than human urine or thin feces mixes with it yet does not alter it, or if urine or feces do enter it but draining it would be excessively difficult (like the cisterns along the Mecca road), it remains purifying.
A small quantity of purifying water with which a woman has been alone to complete a full purification from ritual impurity does not lift a man’s ritual impurity.
If its taste, colour², or odour changes through cooking, something that has fallen into it, or the removal of a small portion of it,