Ibn Ḥajar remarked: “The ḥadith does not stipulate the exact amount that must be thrown away. However, Ibn Abī Shaybah narrates—through a mursal report of ʿAṭāʾ—that it should be ‘about a handful.’ The chain would be sound were it not mursal (interrupted).”
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Whatever remains of the clarified butter, milk, or similar liquids beyond the immediate area around the mouse is pure; it may be eaten and used, for impurity does not spread to every part of the substance.
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The reference to clarified butter happened only because that was the specific incident involving Maymūnah. In reality the ruling is general for every liquid—fat, oil, milk, juice, and the like. Ibn Ḥajar said, “Including liquids other than clarified butter by analogy is self-evident.”
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Al-Khaṭṭābī said: This ḥadith shows that impurity cannot be removed from liquids; if they cannot repel filth from themselves, they are even less able to protect anything else from it.
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The narration indicates that intrinsically impure substances are forbidden and that no benefit or use may be taken from them; the same principle appeared earlier in the ḥadith of Jābir (661).
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The phrase “and it died in it” implies that if the mouse fell in and came out alive, the butter would not be rendered impure. Jurists deem the cat—and anything smaller than it in form—pure while alive, based on the Prophet’s saying: “It is not impure; it is one of those that move about among you,” and the rest are compared to it.
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His statement “Eat it” is not a command; it is permission, clarifying that the butter remains pure.
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This ruling applies provided the butter is not altered by the impurity in smell, taste, or color. If any such change occurs, it becomes impure and may neither be used nor approached. Even water, the primary purifying agent, becomes impure when its taste, smell, or color is altered by contamination—how much more so other liquids that cannot protect themselves from impurity.
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The ḥadith is unrestricted regarding quantity: little or much. Therefore, if a mouse falls into clarified butter, dies, and causes no change, the mouse is removed and the butter is eaten, whether the amount is large or small.