83 – Salman (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) has certainly forbidden us to face the qiblah while defecating or urinating, to cleanse ourselves with the right hand, to suffice with fewer than three stones, or to purify ourselves with dung or with bones.” Narrated by Muslim (1).
Lexical Notes
• la-qad: the prefixed lām of initiation together with qad serve to emphasise the statement.
• al-qiblah: the honoured Kaʿbah in Makkah, the direction faced in prayer.
• aḥjār (stones): pieces of solid rock; the singular is ḥajar, the plurals are aḥjār and ḥijārah.
• rajīʿ: dried droppings of hoofed animals; by legal analogy it includes similar excrement from other animals, as will be explained, God willing.
• ʿaẓm (bone): plural ʿiẓām and aʿẓum; the hard framework of an animal on which flesh grows. Physicians say that bone is a rigid organ that cannot be bent.
Lessons Drawn from the Ḥadīth
- The prohibition against facing the qiblah while urinating or defecating, because it is the direction of the prayer and other acts of worship and therefore the most honoured of all directions. The plain wording shows no distinction between doing so in open land or inside a building; the scholarly disagreement on this will be discussed later, God willing. The ban likewise applies to turning one’s back to the qiblah, for the two Ṣaḥīḥs relate from Abū Ayyūb that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “When you come to relieve yourselves, do not face the qiblah with defecation or urine, nor turn your backs towards it,” as will be mentioned in the next ḥadīth, God willing. Thus the qiblah