(6) “O you who believe, when you rise to perform prayer, wash your faces and your hands up to the elbows, wipe your heads, and wash your feet up to the ankles. If you are in a state of major ritual impurity, purify yourselves. But if you are ill, on a journey, have relieved yourselves, or have touched women and cannot find water, then seek clean earth and wipe your faces and hands with it. Allah does not intend to impose any hardship upon you, but He intends to purify you and complete His blessing upon you, so that you may be grateful.”

This is a magnificent verse containing many rulings. We shall mention whatever Allah makes easy and facilitates for us.

The first is that observing and acting upon the matters mentioned in this verse are among the necessary implications of faith, without which faith is incomplete. This is because He begins the verse by saying, “O you who believe,” and so forth. That is: O you who believe, act as your faith requires by following what We have prescribed for you.

The second is the command to perform prayer, as indicated by His words, “When you rise to perform prayer.”

The third is the command to form the intention for prayer, as indicated by His words, “When you rise to perform prayer”—that is, intending and resolving to perform it.

The fourth is that ritual purity is a condition for the validity of prayer, because Allah commanded it when one rises to pray, and the basic rule is that a command denotes obligation.

The fifth is that purification does not become obligatory merely when the prayer time begins; rather, it becomes obligatory when one intends to pray.

The sixth is that ritual purity is required for everything termed prayer, whether obligatory, supererogatory, communally obligatory, or the funeral prayer. According to many scholars, it is required even for an isolated prostration, such as the prostration of recitation or gratitude.

The seventh is the command to wash the face. The face is the area with which a person faces others: lengthwise, from the usual hairline to the lower ends of the jawbones and chin, and widthwise, from ear to ear.

According to the sunnah, rinsing the mouth and drawing water into the nose are included, as is the facial hair. If the hair is sparse, the water must reach the skin; if it is thick, washing its outer surface is sufficient.

The eighth is the command to wash the hands and arms, whose limit extends to the elbows. As the majority of Quran commentators have stated, “to” here means “together with,” as in the words of Allah Most High, “Do not consume their wealth together with your own.” Moreover, the obligation cannot be completed without washing the entire elbow.

The ninth is the command to wipe the head.

The tenth is that the entire head must be wiped. The preposition used here does not indicate a part of the head; rather, it indicates contact, so the wiping must encompass the whole head.

The eleventh is that it is sufficient to wipe it in any manner, whether with both hands, one hand, a cloth, a piece of wood, or something similar. Allah stated the command to wipe without restricting it to any particular manner, which indicates that it is unrestricted.

The twelfth is that wiping itself is obligatory. If a person washes his head without passing his hand over it, that is insufficient, because he has not done what Allah commanded.

The thirteenth is the command to wash the feet up to the ankles. What was stated regarding the hands and arms also applies to them.

The fourteenth is that, according to the majority reading in which “your feet” is in the accusative case, the verse refutes the Rafidah and establishes that bare feet may not merely be wiped.

The fifteenth is that the genitive reading of “your feet” alludes to wiping over ⦗223⦘ leather socks.

Each of the two readings thus bears a distinct meaning: according to the accusative reading, the feet must be washed when uncovered; according to the genitive reading, they may be wiped when covered by leather socks.

The sixteenth is the command to follow the prescribed order in ablution, because Allah Most High mentions its acts in sequence.

Furthermore, He placed an act of wiping—the head—between two acts of washing, and no purpose for this is known other than establishing the required order.

The seventeenth is that the required order applies specifically to the four bodily parts named in this verse.

As for maintaining order between rinsing the mouth, drawing water into the nose, and washing the face, or between the right and left hands and feet, this is not obligatory. It is, however, recommended to rinse the mouth and nose before washing the face, to wash the right hand and foot before the left, and to wipe the head before wiping the ears.

The eighteenth is the command to renew one’s ablution for every prayer, so that the commanded form is fulfilled.

The nineteenth is the command to perform the full ritual bath after major ritual impurity.

The twentieth is that the washing must encompass the entire body, because Allah ascribed purification to the whole body without excluding any part of it.

The twenty-first is the command to wash both the outside and inside of the hair when purifying oneself from major ritual impurity.

The twenty-second is that minor ritual impurity is subsumed under major ritual impurity. A person affected by both need only intend to remove them and then wash his entire body, because Allah mentions only purification and does not state that he must repeat ablution.

The twenty-third is that the description of being in major ritual impurity applies to one who emits semen while awake or asleep, as well as to one who has intercourse even without ejaculation.

The twenty-fourth is that if someone recalls having had an erotic dream but finds no moisture, he is not required to perform the full ritual bath, because it has not been established that major ritual impurity occurred.

The twenty-fifth is the mention of Allah Most High’s favor to His servants in prescribing tayammum (dry purification).

The twenty-sixth is that illness is among the reasons permitting tayammum when washing with water would cause harm.

The twenty-seventh is that travel and having urinated or defecated are also among the reasons permitting it when water is unavailable. Illness permits tayammum even when water is available because using it would cause harm, whereas the other circumstances permit it only when water is unavailable, even if the person is not travelling.

The twenty-eighth is that urine or feces discharged from either of the two bodily passages invalidates ablution.

The twenty-ninth is that those who hold that only these two things invalidate ablution have cited this verse as evidence. According to them, neither touching the private parts nor anything else invalidates it.

The thirtieth is that it is recommended to use a euphemism for matters considered distasteful to mention explicitly (1), as indicated by the words of Allah Most High, “or have relieved yourselves.”

The thirty-first is that touching a woman with pleasure and desire invalidates ablution.

The thirty-second is that the absence of water is a condition for the validity of tayammum.

The thirty-third is that if water becomes available, even during prayer, the tayammum becomes invalid, because Allah permitted it only when water is unavailable.

The thirty-fourth is that if the prayer time begins and a person has no water with him, he must search for it among his belongings and in the nearby area. One cannot be described as having failed to find something if one has not searched for it.

The thirty-fifth is that if a person finds an amount of water insufficient to complete his purification, he must use it and then perform tayammum afterward.

The thirty-sixth is that water altered by pure substances takes precedence over tayammum—that is, it remains ritually purifying—because altered water is still water and therefore falls within the meaning of, “and cannot find water.”

The thirty-seventh is that an intention is necessary for tayammum, as indicated by the words, “then seek”—that is, deliberately intend to do so.

The thirty-eighth is that tayammum may be performed with anything from the earth’s surface, whether soil or something else. Accordingly, the words, “and wipe your faces and hands with it,” may reflect what is generally the case, since such material will usually bear dust that can be wiped from it and adhere to the face and hands. Alternatively, they may guide one to what is preferable: when dust-bearing soil is available, it is better to use it.

The thirty-ninth is that tayammum is invalid if performed with impure soil, because such soil is not clean but foul.

The fortieth is that in tayammum only the face and hands are wiped, to the exclusion of the other bodily parts.

The forty-first is that the words, “your faces,” include the whole face, which must therefore be wiped in its entirety (2). One is excused, however, from getting dust into the mouth and nose or beneath the facial hair, even if it is sparse.

The forty-second is that the hands are wiped only up to the wrists, because this is what “hands” denotes when used without qualification.

Had it been required for the wiping to extend to the forearms, Allah would have specified that limit, just as He did for ablution.

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The forty-third is that the verse is general in permitting tayammum for every kind of ritual impurity, both major and minor, and even for physical impurity on the body. This is because Allah made it a substitute for purification with water and stated the ruling without restriction. [It may, however, be said that physical impurity on the body does not fall under the ruling of tayammum, because the context concerns states of ritual impurity. This is the view of the majority of scholars.] (3)

The forty-fourth is that the parts wiped in tayammum are the same for both minor and major ritual impurity: the face and hands.

The forty-fifth is that if a person affected by two states of ritual impurity intends his tayammum to remove both, it suffices for him, as understood from the general and unrestricted wording of the verse.

The forty-sixth is that the wiping may be performed with anything, whether one’s hand or something else. Allah said, “wipe,” without specifying what must be used to perform the wiping, which indicates that anything may be used.

The forty-seventh is that the prescribed order is a condition of purification by tayammum, just as it is in ablution, because Allah mentions wiping the face before wiping the hands.

The forty-eighth is that Allah Most High has placed no constraint, hardship, or difficulty upon us in the rulings He has prescribed. Rather, they are a mercy from Him to His servants, by which He purifies them and completes His blessing upon them.

This is the forty-ninth: outward purification with water and earth completes inward purification through tawhīd and sincere repentance.

The fiftieth is that although tayammum does not provide cleanliness and purification perceptible to the senses and visible to the eye, it does provide a spiritual purification arising from obedience to the command of Allah Most High.

The fifty-first is that the servant should reflect upon the wisdom and deeper purposes of Allah’s laws, concerning purification and everything else, so that he may increase in knowledge and understanding, and grow in gratitude and love for Allah because of the rulings He has prescribed, which lead the servant to lofty and exalted stations.