from the Sunnah that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said concerning the man whose she-camel had broken his neck:

“Wash him with water and lote leaves.”

Likewise, he said to the women who washed his daughter:

“Wash her with water and lote leaves.”

And to the man who embraced Islam:

“Bathe with water and lote leaves.”

There is discussion concerning this, but this is not the place for it. Once what we have explained becomes clear, the enormity of the religious innovation and alteration of the Sunnah and divine law becomes apparent in the excessive obsessive doubts displayed in this matter by certain groups associated with religious learning and devotion. Their conduct has come to resemble that of the Jews—indeed, that of the Samaritans, who say, “No touching!”

In matters of declaring things lawful or unlawful—which include matters of purification and impurity—Islam takes a middle course between the Jews and the Christians, just as it does in all other religious laws. We have not been subjected to the severity concerning prohibitions and impurity imposed upon the Jews, for whom wholesome things previously lawful were forbidden because of their wrongdoing and transgression. Rather, the burdens and shackles that bound them have been lifted from us, such as cutting away parts of garments, avoiding eating or sharing a bed with a menstruating woman, and other such restrictions.

Nor have foul things been made lawful for us, as the Christians have deemed them lawful. They do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, nor do they follow the religion of truth. They neither avoid impurity nor forbid anything foul. Rather, the most any of them does is to say, “Purify your heart and pray.” The Jew, by contrast, concerns himself only with his outward purity