so that whatever is inside may be dislodged; thus, istinshāq is the act of drawing water into the nose.

– istanthara: from nathara, “to scatter.” In usage it refers to expelling whatever is in the nose—mucus and the like—by means of water; hence istinthār is the expulsion of the water from the nose after istinshāq.

Ibn Qutaybah and others considered istinshāq and istinthār to be identical. Al-Karmānī, however, held that this ḥadīth supports the view of those who distinguish between them, and that view is correct: istinshāq is bringing the water into the nose, whereas istinthār is expelling it.

– ilā (“to” or “up to”): Grammarians state that ilā marks the end point of a temporal or spatial limit—temporal, as in “Then complete the fast until the night” (Q 2:187), and spatial, as in “from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque” (Q 17:1). Here it denotes a spatial limit.

What follows ilā may form part of what precedes it, or the whole of it, or may lie outside it; context determines inclusion or exclusion. If no contextual clue exists and the item is of the same genus, inclusion and exclusion are both possible; if it is of a different genus, the presumption is that it is not included.

In the present case, the context shows that what comes after ilā is included in what comes before it, as will be explained in the legal discussion of the ḥadīth, God willing.

– al-mirfaq (elbow): pronounced with fatḥa on the mīm and kasra on the fāʾ, though the reverse vocalisation is also attested. It is the joint where the forearm meets the upper arm; plural marāfiq. Each person has two mirfaqān. The term derives from rifq because one leans on it for support. Both consonants may be opened, in which case the word functions as a verbal noun.

– ilā al-kaʿbayn (“up to the ankles”): kaʿb is here in the dual form; the kaʿbān are the two protruding bones at the junction of the shin and foot, as in the description of congregational prayer narrated by al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr: “I saw one of us place his ankle against the ankle of his companion” (reported by Aḥmad 17962 and al-Bayhaqī 1/76).

– w-a-masaḥa bi-raʾsihi (“and he wiped his head”): the verb masaḥa is normally transitive; the prefixed bāʾ here is an emphatic particle indicating that the wiping covers the whole head, not merely a part of it.