and your feet up to the ankles, and wipe your heads. If you are in a state of major ritual impurity, purify yourselves. If you are ill or on a journey and cannot find water, then seek clean earth and wipe your faces and hands with it.”

The proponent of this interpretation, Muhammad ibn Maslama, one of our scholars, construed the verse in this order because its apparent wording would otherwise make travel and illness states of ritual impurity requiring ablution, just like relieving oneself. By consensus, this is not correct.

Another view is that the verse is to be understood in its recited order, with nothing transposed. Those who hold this view cite the fact that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, performed ablution only in the sequence given in the verse: he wiped his head before washing his feet, in accordance with established practice. Had the verse been intended in an order other than that in which it is recited, the feet would have had to be washed before the head was wiped. For reconstructing its intended order amounts to interpreting it, and practice cannot properly contradict that interpretation.

Thus, if the verse is understood in its recited order, without assuming any transposition, the words of Allah Most High, “If you are ill,” mean: ill and unable to use water or to find someone to bring it to you. Illness generally makes it impossible to use water or gain access to it. Allah, glorified be He, therefore sufficed with mentioning the sick, leaving the intended meaning to be understood, just as His words, mighty and majestic is He,

“But whoever among you is ill or on a journey, then let him fast an equal number of other days” [al-Baqarah: 184],

are understood to presuppose that he has broken his fast.

Likewise, His words, mighty and majestic is He, “Or on a journey” [al-Nisā’: 43], mean those who cannot find water. Mentioning travel alone sufficed to convey the intended meaning, since water is generally unavailable when travelling. Since water is generally available when one is at home, He expressly stipulated its absence, saying:

“Or one of you comes from relieving himself, or you have touched women, and you cannot find water, then seek clean earth.”

In my view, this interpretation is preferable and more evident than construing the verse as involving transposition. Transposition is figurative usage, and understanding speech literally is preferable to understanding it figuratively, particularly since some scholars deny that the Quran contains figurative usage.

Section

The view that the verse is to be understood in its recited order, with nothing transposed, is the position adopted by Mālik in