whose inhabitants can dispense with bathhouses, just as people in such lands can dispense with fur garments and mattresses.

The discussion falls into two sections:

The first concerns the detailed rulings on building, selling, and renting out bathhouses, as mentioned above. There are four possible cases: they are needed and involve nothing prohibited; they are not needed and involve nothing prohibited; they are needed but involve something prohibited; or they involve something prohibited without there being any need for them.

As for the first case, there is no doubt that it is permissible. An example is a man building a bathhouse for himself and his family in a cold country, without doing anything in it that Allah has forbidden. Here, there is a need.

Another example would be to suppose that a public bathhouse is built in a cold country and kept free of everything prohibited. Building, selling, and renting it out in this case are comparable to a man entering a private or shared bathhouse while lowering his gaze, guarding his private parts, and fulfilling his duty to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. There is no doubt that this is permissible, and a number of the Companions entered bathhouses. The hadiths permitting this are well known, such as the hadith of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, which