and with the mīm doubled; the root conveys the idea of directing oneself toward something. The Arabs say: ammahu yaʾummuhu—“he made for it”—because the person making tayammum heads for the earth and wipes himself with it.

In the Law it means: to approach clean, permissible soil and use it in a prescribed manner in order to become eligible for prayer and similar acts, thereby fulfilling the divine command.

Points extracted from the ḥadīth

1. The report indicates that tayammum is performed with two strikes, not one.
2. The first strike is used to wipe the face, and the second to wipe the hands.
3. This narration conflicts with the earlier ḥadīth of ʿAmmār, which mentions only a single strike for both face and hands.
4. The scholars have discussed this apparent contradiction between the reports of ʿAmmār and Ibn ʿUmar:
   (a) The ḥadīth of ʿAmmār is recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, whereas the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar appears in al-Dāraquṭnī’s Sunan, whose author did not restrict himself to authentic traditions and often transmits weak ones. Hence the report of Ibn ʿUmar is in no way comparable to that of ʿAmmār in terms of soundness.
   (b) The narration of ʿAmmār is marfūʿ—traced back to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)—whereas the narration of Ibn ʿUmar is merely the statement of Ibn ʿUmar himself and not a prophetic utterance, even though it concerns a matter that allows no personal reasoning. There remains, however, a real difference between a marfūʿ and a mawqūf report.
   (c) Every chain that speaks of two strikes is either mawqūf, not reaching the Prophet, or weak and thus incapable of establishing proof.
5. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr said, “All the marfūʿ traditions mention a single strike, and whatever reports two strikes is entirely inconsistent.” Abū Zurʿah declared the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar “baseless.” Ibn al-Qayyim stated, “Nothing regarding two strikes is sound,” and al-Albānī judged the narrations that mention two strikes to be “feeble and defective.”
6. Therefore the correct and relied-upon position in this matter is the ḥadīth of ʿAmmār. Al-Bukhārī settled the question in his Ṣaḥīḥ, entitling a section “Chapter: Tayammum Is One Strike,” and wrote in Fatḥ al-Bārī: “That is the obligatory measure that suffices.”