Interpreting the verse according to its plain, literal order is therefore preferable to reading it figuratively. Some have assumed that the verse itself demands a re-ordering, arguing that, taken as it stands, it would make illness and travel two distinct causes of ritual impurity. That difficulty, however, disappears if the particle “aw” (or) in this context is understood with the force of “wa” (and)—a usage well attested in Arabic, as in the poet’s line:

It mattered little whether they kept the herd from roaming
or let it loose while the dusty troughs remained.

Customarily one says, “It is all the same to me whether Zayd and ʿAmr do so,” employing the conjunction “and.” This linguistic point is one of the reasons that produced disagreement over the present issue.

As for their doubts regarding the prophetic reports on the subject, those misgivings become clear in the narrations recorded by al-Bukhārī and Muslim:

“A man came to ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—and said, ‘I have become junub and found no water.’ ʿUmar replied, ‘Then do not pray.’ ʿAmmār said, ‘Do you not recall, O Commander of the Believers, that you and I were once in a detachment, both of us became junub and could not find water? You did not pray, whereas I rolled myself in the dust and prayed. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “It would have been enough for you to strike the earth with your hands, blow into them, then wipe your face and your hands.”’ ʿUmar retorted, ‘Fear Allah, O ʿAmmār.’ ʿAmmār answered, ‘If you wish, I will stop relating it.’”

In another wording it is reported that ʿUmar said to him, “We entrust you with whatever responsibility you have assumed.”

Muslim also transmits from Shaqīq, who said:

“I was sitting with ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd and Abū Mūsā. Abū Mūsā asked, ‘Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, suppose a man becomes junub and cannot find water for a whole month—what should he do about his prayer?’ ʿAbd Allāh replied, ‘He does not perform tayammum, even if he finds no water for a month.’ Abū Mūsā said, ‘But what of the verse in Sūrat al-Māʾidah: “If you find no water, then perform tayammum with clean earth” (al-Nisāʾ 4:43)?’ ʿAbd Allāh responded, ‘Had they been given license by that verse, they would soon, whenever the water felt cold, resort to earth for tayammum.’ Abū Mūsā then said, ‘Have you not heard the statement of ʿAmmār?’ and he mentioned the preceding ḥadīth. ʿAbd Allāh replied, ‘Do you not see that ʿUmar himself was not satisfied with ʿAmmār’s report?’”

The majority nonetheless maintain that the ruling is firmly established by the ḥadīths of ʿAmmār and ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn, both authenticated by al-Bukhārī. ʿUmar’s forgetting the incident, they say, does not invalidate the obligation to act upon ʿAmmār’s narration. Moreover, they cite the general wording of the Prophet’s ﷺ saying, “The earth has been made for me a place of worship and a means of purification,” as evidence that tayammum is permissible for one in a state of major impurity and for a menstruating woman alike.