With regard to removing impurity and purifying the object, they argue that water is the only agent that qualifies, because this ḥadith explicitly names it and, in both the Qur’an and the Sunnah, water is presented as the primary means of purification.

Shaykh al-Islam, however, maintains that purification may be achieved by substances other than water. To insist that water alone is valid and that nothing else suffices would require specific evidence, and no such proof exists. A mere command to use water does not, by itself, establish an unrestricted obligation to use it in every situation. In fact, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ permitted removing impurity without water in several cases—among them cleansing with stones (istijmār)—and he said about the trailing hem of a woman’s dress: “Whatever comes after it purifies it” [reported by al-Tirmidhi, 143], and about sandals: “Then he should rub them with earth, for earth is a purifier for them” [reported by Abū Dāwūd, 386].

This latter view is the correct one, and Allah knows best.