VOLUME TWENTY-ONE
BOOK OF JURISPRUDENCE
PART ONE: PURIFICATION

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy.

CHAPTER ON WATER

The shaykh and imam, the scholar who put his knowledge into practice, the exemplary guide, the godly scholar of the Muslim community and reviver of the Sunnah, the erudite Shaykh al-Islām Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-Abbās Ahmad ibn Abd al-Halīm ibn Abd al-Salām Ibn Taymiyyah al-Harrānī—may Allah sanctify his soul and illuminate his grave—said:

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May Allah send prayers, peace, and blessings upon His servant and Messenger Muhammad, the seal of the messengers and leader of the rightly guided, and upon all his family.

SECTION

Of all acts of worship, the greatest is prayer. Scholars begin discussing its rulings either with purification, because of his saying (may Allah bless him and grant him peace):

“The key to prayer is purification,”

as most of them have arranged their works; or with the prescribed times at which prayer becomes obligatory, as Mālik and others have done.