45 – Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “Whenever the Prophet ﷺ performed ablution, he would make the water circulate over his elbows.” Al-Daraqutni transmitted it with a weak chain of narration.(1)
Degree of authenticity:
The hadith is weak because its chain contains al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Aqil, who has been discarded; Ahmad, Ibn Ma‘in and others declared him unreliable. A number of hadith masters—al-Mundhiri, Ibn al-Salah, al-Nawawi and others—openly classified the report as weak. Al-Hafiz (Ibn Hajar) said: It is made unnecessary by what Muslim narrated from Abu Hurayrah—that he performed ablution until he reached the upper arm and said, “This is how I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ perform ablution.”
Glossary:
• “adar al-mā’” – lit. “caused the water to turn”; i.e., he ran the water so that it covered both elbows completely.
• “mirfaqayhi” – the dual of mirfaq (also pronounced murfaq), plural marāfiq: the joint where the forearm meets the upper arm, called an elbow because one leans on it for support.
Points derived from the hadith:
- His phrase “whenever he performed ablution” means: when he began the wudu and reached the stage of washing the arms.
- It is obligatory to run water over the elbows when washing the arms, for they are the remainder and end of the hand; the Prophet ﷺ said after performing ablution, “Whoever performs ablution in the manner I have just done …”
- Allah the Exalted says, “and your hands up to the elbows” (al-Ma’idah 6). The majority of exegetes hold that ilā (“up to”) here means “together with,” as in His words, “and do not consume their wealth together with your wealth” (al-Nisa’ 2). It was mentioned earlier that whatever follows ilā is sometimes included in what