Section

Water altered by impurities becomes impure by consensus. As for water that remains unchanged, there are several well-known views:

The first is that it does not become impure. This is the position of the scholars of Medina, the view transmitted from Mālik by his Medinan followers, and the position of many hadith scholars. It is also one of the positions reported from Ahmad, adopted by a group of his followers and defended by Ibn ‘Aqīl in al-Mufradāt, Ibn al-Bannā’, and others.

The second is that a small quantity of water becomes impure through a small amount of impurity. This is the view transmitted from Mālik by his Basran followers.

The third, which is the position of al-Shāfi‘ī and another position reported from Ahmad—adopted by a group of his followers—distinguishes between water amounting to two qullahs and water below that amount. Mālik does not set the threshold for a large quantity at two qullahs, whereas al-Shāfi‘ī and Ahmad do.

The fourth distinguishes between urine and liquid feces, on the one hand, and other impurities, on the other. The former render impure