about the bone?’ He answered, ‘It is the provision for your brothers among the jinn.’
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It is forbidden to perform istinjāʾ with dung, and it does not bring about purification.
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The rationale: the previous hadith states, “It is rikṣ (filth),” meaning impure.
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The same report indicates that cleansing with stones does purify and that no water is required afterward, for the Prophet ﷺ explained that bone and dung do not purify—implying that stones do.
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If istinjāʾ with bone is disallowed because it is food for the jinn, then using food meant for humans for that purpose is, a fortiori, even more strictly prohibited.
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Anything that can stand in place of stones—such as twigs, pieces of wood, cloth, tissue paper, and other materials for which no prohibition exists—achieves purification.
- Difference among the jurists:
The well-known position in the Ḥanbalī school is that cleansing with stones (istijmār) does not itself purify the site; rather, it merely permits one to pray and the like. Consequently, the residue left after istijmār remains impure, though a small amount of it is excused. Al-Mardāwī said in al-Inṣāf that this is the view held by the majority of Hanbalī scholars.
A second report declares that it does purify; this was adopted by a number of authorities.
The hadith before us supports the view that the area becomes pure after istijmār, for his ﷺ words “they do not purify”—referring to bone and dung—imply that stones alone do purify.
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī said: “The correct view is that istijmār purifies the place once the Sharʿī requirements are met, for the authentic text affirms that it purifies.”
The istijmār that yields purification is the thorough wiping with stones or their equivalents until nothing remains of the impurity except a trace that only water could remove.