93 – Abu Saʿid al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Water is from water.” Narrated by Muslim, and its original wording is in al-Bukhari (1).

Vocabulary of the hadith

• “Water is from water”: a subject–predicate construction. The first “water” refers to the water of ghusl (the ritual bath); the second refers to semen that issues forth in spurts accompanied by pleasure. Allah has called it “water” in His words: “He was created from an ejaculated fluid” (Q 86:6). The two terms form a complete pun, sharing the same letters in form, type, number, and order.
• “min” (from): here denotes causation. In some transmissions the wording is: “Only water is from water.”

Points derived from the hadith
1 – The hadith indicates that the obligation to perform ghusl for a state of major ritual impurity (janābah) applies only when the “water,” namely semen, is discharged; if no emission occurs, no ghusl is required.
2 – The hadith conveys this ruling through the sense of exclusivity understood from the defined subject—the first “water.” In the sound narration it is further restricted by the particle innamā: “Only water is from water.” This restriction affirms that no ghusl is obligatory except upon ejaculation.
3 – Ghusl is the act of pouring water over the entire body. The scholars unanimously agree on the legitimacy of rubbing (dalk), yet they differ on whether it is obligatory. The correct view held by the majority is that it is not, because rubbing is not part of the very definition of ghusl.
4 – The implied meaning of this hadith is contradicted by the explicit wording of the following report from Abu Hurayrah. As no satisfactory reconciliation exists, the majority of scholars hold that it has been abrogated by that later hadith.