along with dog flesh and putrid matter. He replied: “Water is pure and purifying; nothing renders it impure.” Ahmad said: “The hadith concerning the well of Budā‘ah is authentic.” It is also reported in al-Musnad from Ibn ‘Abbās that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Water is pure and purifying; nothing renders it impure.”

This wording encompasses both small and large quantities of water, as well as all kinds of impurity. When water is altered by impurity, its use is forbidden only because the substance of the impurity remains, so using the water entails using that impurity. By contrast, when the impurity has undergone transformation, the water is pure and purifying, and no impurity remains present.

This is illustrated by the following: if wine fell into water and underwent transformation, someone who then drank it would not be drinking wine, nor would he be liable to the prescribed punishment for drinking wine, since none of its taste, colour or smell remained. Likewise, if a woman’s milk were poured into water and underwent transformation until no trace of it remained, a boy who drank that water would not thereby become her son through breastfeeding.

Furthermore, this water retains its original characteristics and thus falls within the general scope of the words of Allah Most High:

“and find no water”

For the discussion concerns water whose taste, colour and smell have not been altered by impurity.

If it is objected: The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, “forbade urinating