Sea water contains a variety of mineral salts, and its saline solution is an electrical conductor that constitutes the greatest share of the substances inherent in it. For that reason it is better suited than other kinds of water for removing filth and lifting ritual impurity. Truly, Allah’s creation holds hidden wonders.

– al-ḥill: pronounced with a kasra on the ḥā and a shadda on the lām; an adjective derived from ḥalla yaḥill (conjugated like ḍaraba), the opposite of ḥarama, meaning “lawful.” This is the reading found in the version of al-Dāraquṭnī.

– maytatuhu: with a fatḥa on the mīm it means “that which has died without lawful slaughter”; with a kasra it denotes the manner or state, as in jilsah (sitting). The first sense is the one intended here. The word maytatuhu serves as the subject of al-ḥill, and what is meant is whatever of its creatures dies in the sea and can live only in the sea, not anything that merely happens to die there.

Points derived from the ḥadith

1. Al-Shāfiʿī said, “This ḥadith constitutes half the knowledge of purification.” Ibn al-Mulaqqin remarked, “It is a great ḥadith and a foundational text in the law of purification, encompassing many rulings and important legal principles.”
2. The ḥadith establishes that sea water is purifying, a view held by all scholars.
3. Sea water removes both major and minor ritual impurity and eliminates incidental defilement from any pure locus—body, garment, place, and so on.
4. If water’s taste, color, or odor changes because of something pure, it still remains purifying as long as it is still fundamentally water, even when its salinity, heat, coldness, and the like become intense.
5. The ḥadith indicates that it is not obligatory to carry sufficient water for purification when one is able to do so, for the Companions said they carried only a small amount.
6. The phrase “Its water is purifying,” though introduced by the definite article al- that can imply exclusivity, does not negate the purifying quality of other waters, because it answers a question specifically about sea water and is therefore qualified by other texts.