Chapter Five
On identifying the acts for which this state of ritual purity is a prerequisite
The foundation of this chapter is the Almighty’s words:
“O you who believe, when you rise for the prayer…” (al-Māʾidah 5:6)
and the Prophet’s saying—peace and blessings be upon him:
“Allah does not accept a prayer without purification, nor a charity taken from ill-gotten gain.”
The Muslims are unanimously agreed that purification is one of the conditions attached to the prayer by virtue of these two texts, although they differ as to whether it is a condition for the prayer’s validity or merely for its obligation. They also concur that the requirement applies to every form of prayer except the Funeral Prayer and the prostration of Qur’an recitation, regarding which there is an uncommon disagreement.
The reason lies in the potential breadth of the word “prayer.” Those who hold— and they are the majority— that the term extends to the Funeral Prayer and to prostration itself stipulate purification for them. Those who deny that the term applies—arguing that the Funeral Prayer has no bowing or prostration, and the prostration of recitation has neither standing nor bowing—do not require purification for either.
Together with this central issue, the chapter embraces four subsidiary questions:
First question: Is purification a condition for touching the Muṣḥaf?
Mālik, Abū Ḥanīfah, and al-Shāfiʿī say that it is, whereas the Ẓāhirīs hold that it is not.
The root of their disagreement is the range of meanings that may be drawn from the verse:
“None touch it except the purified” (al-Wāqiʿah 56:79).
Should “the purified” be understood as human beings or as the angels? Is the statement a prohibition or merely descriptive?
Whoever interprets “the purified” as human beings and reads the sentence as prohibitive concludes that only a person in a state of purity may touch the Muṣḥaf. Whoever takes it as simple information and understands “the purified” to mean the angels finds no evidence in the verse for requiring purity to touch the Muṣḥaf; in the absence of any clear proof from Qur’an or authentic Sunnah, they hold fast to the original presumption of permissibility.
The majority bolster their view with the ḥadith of ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm:
“The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—wrote: ‘Let none touch the Qur’an except one who is pure.’”
The scholars have differed over whether such written reports oblige action, for they were transmitted in written rather than oral form. I have seen Ibn al-Mufawwiz declare them sound when carried by trustworthy narrators, on the grounds that they constitute the Prophet’s own correspondence. The same ruling applies to the reports of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, from his father, from his grandfather. The Ẓāhirīs, however, reject them.
Mālik further granted a concession allowing children to touch the Muṣḥaf without purification, because they are not yet legally accountable.