Among them are the following:
Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl al-Shaykh said, “They are pure while alive; nothing from them is deemed impure except urine, dung, and blood.”
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī stated, “The sound, indisputable position is that the mule and the donkey are pure while alive, like the cat; therefore their saliva, perspiration, and hair are likewise pure.”
The advocates of impurity cite the Prophet’s words, “They are rijs,” and rijs means impurity; hence, they contend, the hadith in its general wording renders every part of the animal impure. Their guiding principle is that any animal whose flesh is prohibited is, together with all of its parts, impure and repellent.
Those who judge the body, saliva, nasal mucus, sweat, and hair of the mule and donkey to be pure advance several proofs:
- The Prophet ﷺ and his Companions used to ride them, yet he never commanded people to avoid their secretions. Postponing clarification beyond the moment of need is impermissible.
- Concerning the cat he ﷺ said, “It is not impure; it is one of those that move about among you.” The same rationale—indeed, an even stronger one—applies to the mule and the donkey, for riding and using them is far more frequent and necessary than interacting with cats. If the cat is excused because it mingles with people, all the more so the mule and the donkey.
- There is the overarching legal maxim al-mashaqqa tajlib al-taysīr (“hardship necessitates facilitation”); the difficulty inherent in riding and loading mules and donkeys constitutes a specific case that falls under this great principle.
Hence Imām Aḥmad declared, “The mule and the donkey are pure—their saliva, sweat, and hair.”
Al-Mughnī states, “The view I hold to be sound is that the mule and the she-donkey are pure, because the Prophet ﷺ rode them and people rode them in his lifetime; had they been impure he would have made that clear.”
Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl al-Shaykh likewise remarked, “This opinion best accords with the Muḥammadan law, the law of ease, and the avoidance of hardship and difficulty.”
Ibn al-Qayyim concluded, “The evidence for impurity cannot withstand the evidence for purity.”