87 – Ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “The Prophet ﷺ came back from relieving himself and ordered me, ‘Bring me three stones.’ I found two stones but could not find a third, so I brought him a piece of dung. He took the two stones, threw the dung away, and said, ‘It is riks (filth).’ ” Al-Bukhārī recorded the report, and Aḥmad and al-Dāraquṭnī add the words: “Bring me something else.” (1)

Vocabulary of the ḥadith
• ruthah: pronounced with a fatḥah on the rāʾ and a silent wāw; its plural is rawth and arwāth. It refers to the droppings of hoofed animals, most commonly donkeys. This is supported by Ibn Khuzaymah’s version: “It was the dropping of a donkey.”
• riks: with a kasrah on the rāʾ, a silent kāf, and ending with a sīn; its plural is arkās. It means “impurity” or “filth.” Al-ʿAynī said: “Rijs and riks, according to some, both denote impurity; others hold that riks is identical with rijs, while yet other explanations have been offered.”

Points derived from the ḥadith
1 – The ruthah in question is the dung of a donkey or a similar hoofed animal. Ibn Khuzaymah’s additional wording—“It was the dropping of a donkey”—shows that Ibn Masʿūd brought donkey dung. The Prophet ﷺ discarded it, accepted the two stones, and told him to bring something else in its place.
2 – The wording indicates that the Prophet ﷺ intended to perform istinjāʾ with stones only, for he asked specifically for three stones—the minimum that suffices when stones alone are used to remove impurity, as noted earlier.