– Jabāʾir (sg. jabīrah): the splints or bandages used to set a broken bone—whether a strip of cloth wrapped around it, pieces of wood tied to it, or any similar device.

Points derived from the ḥadith

1. The report legislates wiping over a jabīrah. A jabīrah is anything placed on a fracture or wound—wooden splints, plaster, cloth bandages, and the like—fastened over the injured spot.

2. The rulings for wiping over a jabīrah differ from those for wiping over the khuffs, the ʿimāmah (turban), and the khimār (headscarf) in several respects. These were mentioned earlier under “Wiping over the Khuffs,” but are repeated here:

   (a) One may wipe over a jabīrah in both major and minor states of ritual impurity, whereas wiping over the khuffs, turban, and headscarf is allowed only in the case of minor impurity.

   (b) Wiping over a jabīrah remains permissible until the wound or fracture heals, whereas wiping over the khuffs and the like is limited to one day and night for a resident and three days and nights for a traveller.

   (c) According to the Mālikīs, Shāfiʿīs, and Ḥanbalīs, the entire jabīrah must be wiped; the Ḥanafīs hold that wiping most of it suffices. By contrast, for the khuffs, turban, and headscarf it is enough to wipe part of the item, as detailed earlier.

   (d) The sounder of the two scholarly views is that it is not a condition for the jabīrah to have been applied while in a state of ritual purity, unlike the khuffs, turban, and headscarf.

These are the chief rulings in which the jabīrah differs from each of the three items—khuffs, turban, and headscarf. The distinction arises because wiping over a jabīrah is a necessity-based concession and therefore cannot be analogised to the khuffs, whereas wiping over the other items is a dispensation granted for ease and facilitation.

3. This ḥadith, along with the one that follows, is among the evidences for the permissibility of wiping over a jabīrah and testifies to the leniency and compassion inherent in the rulings of the sharīʿah.