any water that can be drained, but not water that cannot be drained. Other impurities, by contrast, do not render water impure when it amounts to two qullahs or more. This is the best-known position reported from Ahmad and the one adopted by most of his followers.

The fifth view is that water becomes impure through contact with impurity, whether its quantity is small or large. This is the position of Abū Hanīfah and his followers. However, water that the impurity does not reach is not rendered impure. They defined water beyond its reach as water in which moving one end does not cause the other end to move. They then disagreed over whether this should be determined by the movements of someone performing ablution or someone taking a ritual bath. Muhammad ibn al-Hasan estimated this by reference to his mosque, which they found to measure ten cubits by ten cubits.

They also disagreed over whether wells into which impurity had fallen could be purified. Al-Muzanī maintained that they could not. Abū Hanīfah and his followers said that they could be purified by drawing out water; they have well-known opinions concerning the number of bucketfuls to be drawn.

The sixth view is that of the Zāhirīs, who regard water into which someone has urinated directly as impure, but not water into which urine has been poured. Apart from this, they do not regard water as impure unless it has undergone a change.