the different interpretations the verse admits. Whoever takes the verse at face value, without assuming any rearrangement of its wording, considers both to be entitled to tayammum. This is because the condition of water being unavailable applies to the resident, while it is understood to be implicit in the case of the sick person and the traveller; inability to touch water is also understood to be implicit in the sick person’s case. Whoever assumes a rearrangement of the verse’s wording does not consider either to be entitled to tayammum, because, on that reading, the condition of water being unavailable applies only to the sick person and the traveller.

Likewise, neither is entitled to tayammum if the verse is understood according to the interpretation we mentioned earlier: that “or” in the words of Allah Most High, “or one of you comes from relieving himself” [al-Mā’idah: 6], means “and.” This interpretation is clearer than the preceding two, because the wording retains its apparent order, without rearrangement or any need to supply implicit words. Its meaning is thus clear, without difficulty or ambiguity. For, according to this interpretation, the verse is understood as follows:

“O you who believe, when you rise for prayer, wash your faces and your arms to the elbows, wipe your heads, and wash your feet to the ankles. If you are in a state of major ritual impurity, purify yourselves” [al-Mā’idah: 6]—continuing through to “and your hands with it” [al-Mā’idah: 6].

Tayammum means making for something. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says, “nor those making for the Sacred House” [al-Mā’idah: 2], meaning those heading towards it. Saʿīd means whatever rises from the earth; it is also said to mean soil. Tayyib means pure. Allah Most High is saying: If you are in these circumstances, make for pure soil and wipe your faces and hands with it. The position of Mālik—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—and all his companions is that saʿīd means the earth’s surface, whether soil or otherwise, since they permit tayammum with sand, pebbles, and mountain rock.

The evidence supporting Mālik’s position is the saying of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: “The earth has been made for me a place of prayer and a means of purification.” The apparent meaning of this hadith therefore requires that tayammum be permissible with anything akin to the earth that has not been altered by human craft, just as prayer upon it is permissible. Accordingly, tayammum is permissible with grass growing on the earth’s surface when it covers the ground and comes between you and it. Yahyā ibn Saʿīd said: “Whatever intervenes