—if it contains water.
• qaḍā bawlahu (“he finished his urination”): The verb qaḍā appears in the Qur’an with several nuances, one of which is “to finish,” as in Allah’s statement, “The matter about which you both inquire has been decided” (Q 12:41). That is the meaning here: he had completed his urination.
• fa-uhriqa ʿalayhi (“it was poured over it”): The original form is fa-urīqa ʿalayhi (“so it was poured over it”); the initial hamzah was then changed to a hāʾ, producing fuhriqa, after which another hamzah was prefixed, yielding fa-uhriqa. The hāʾ is read quiescent, and the verb is in the passive voice, as noted earlier.
Lessons derived from the ḥadīth
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Urine is impure, and any place it reaches—be it body, clothing, vessel, ground, or otherwise—must be purified.
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The ground is purified from urine by flooding it with water; removing the soil, whether before or after washing, is unnecessary. The same rule applies to other liquid impurities, provided that no tangible trace of the impurity remains.
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Mosques are to be honored and kept free of filth and impurity. In the version reported by all the compilers except al-Bukhārī, the Prophet ﷺ said to the man, “These mosques are not suitable for any of this urine or filth; they are only for the remembrance of Allah and the recitation of the Qur’an.”
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The Prophet’s ﷺ forbearance: he guided the Bedouin with gentleness after the latter had urinated, which moved the man to pray, “O Allah, have mercy on me and on Muḥammad, and do not show mercy to anyone else along with us” (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6010).
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The Prophet’s farsightedness, his knowledge of people’s dispositions, and his gracious conduct won their hearts, as Allah says, “And indeed you are of a sublime character” (Q 68:4).
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When harms conflict, the lesser harm is tolerated. The Prophet ﷺ let the man finish so as to avoid the greater harm that would have resulted from interrupting him—soiling his body and clothes, spreading the urine to other parts of the mosque, and causing physical harm, especially to the urinary tract.