because, in his view, it does not remove ritual impurity outright as a full ritual bath and ablution do, even though it permits everything that ablution permits, both obligatory and voluntary acts of worship. The more evident view is that it is a substitute according to his school, since it permits everything that a full ritual bath and ablution permit. The reason it does not remove ritual impurity in his view is that the original rule required ablution—or dry ablution when water was unavailable—for every prayer, according to the apparent meaning of Allah’s words, exalted is He:

“O you who believe, when you rise for prayer…” [al-Mā’idah: 6]

Ablution was exempted from this apparent requirement by the established report that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, performed several prayers with a single ablution. Dry ablution, however, remained subject to the original rule and was not treated as analogous to ablution, because a substitute does not have the same force as that which it replaces. And Allah knows best. There is no disagreement that it is a substitute for ablution among those who hold that it removes ritual impurity either outright or until water is found. Nor is there disagreement that it merely permits prayer among those who hold that it may be used only for an obligatory prayer whose time one fears will expire.

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As for the full ritual bath, it falls into several categories: obligatory, sunnah, and recommended. The obligatory baths are those required because of major ritual impurity, menstruation, and postnatal bleeding. The sunnah bath is that of Friday. Recommended baths include those for the two Eids; the bath taken by a woman with irregular bleeding when that bleeding ceases; and the baths for entering the state of ihrām, entering Mecca, and standing at ʿArafah.

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Ablution likewise includes obligatory, sunnah, and recommended forms. Obligatory ablution is that performed for any obligatory, sunnah, or voluntary act that is valid only with ritual purification. Its classification does not vary with the classification of those acts, because it is not sought for its own sake; rather, its obligation arises from something else. Thus, it is not described as obligatory without qualification. Rather, it is said to be obligatory for a particular act, meaning that it is a condition of that act’s validity, and not obligatory for another, meaning that it is not a condition of its validity. The sunnah form is the ablution performed by someone in a state of major ritual impurity who wishes to sleep.