- Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, speaking about the sea, said: “Its water is purifying, and its dead creatures are lawful.” This ḥadith was recorded by the Four Sunan compilers as well as by Ibn Abī Shaybah—the wording cited here is his—and it was declared authentic by Ibn Khuzaymah and al-Tirmidhī. It was also transmitted by Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad. (1)
Grade of the ḥadith
The ḥadith is ṣaḥīḥ (authentic).
Al-Tirmidhī remarked, “It is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.” When I asked al-Bukhārī about it, he said, “It is ṣaḥīḥ.” Al-Zurqānī, in his commentary on al-Muwaṭṭaʾ, wrote: “This ḥadith is one of the foundational texts of Islam; the ummah has accepted it unanimously.” A large number of scholars have authenticated it, including al-Bukhārī, al-Ḥākim, Ibn Ḥibbān, Ibn al-Munḏir, al-Ṭaḥāwī, al-Baghawī, al-Khaṭṭābī, Ibn Khuzaymah, al-Dāraquṭnī, Ibn Ḥazm, Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd, Ibn Kathīr, and Ibn Ḥajar—indeed, more than thirty-six leading authorities in all.
Vocabulary of the ḥadith
• baḥr (sea): the opposite of land; the vast expanses of salty water. Its plurals are abḥur, biḥār, and buḥūr. It is called baḥr because of its depth and breadth.
• ṭahūr: with an open tā and a doubled ḥā; an intensive form meaning water that is pure in itself and that purifies other things. The definite article here is not restrictive—it does not exclude other waters from being purifying—because the phrase is an answer to a question; the article merely defines the reality under discussion. The word māʾuhu (“its water”) functions as the subject of ṭahūr, and the pronoun refers to the sea.