Accordingly, it may be said:

On either view, ritual impurity no longer constitutes an impediment once purification through dry ablution has been attained. The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—made earth a means of purification just as he made water a means of purification. However, he limited its purifying effect to the period before water becomes available, imposing no other condition for its being a means of purification. Thus, someone who has performed dry ablution has become ritually pure, and the impediment’s prohibitive effect upon prayer has been lifted until water becomes available. As long as water remains unavailable, that prohibitive effect remains absent, provided no fresh cause arises requiring purification, just as it would require purification with water.

Earth is therefore a means of purification before, after, and during the prayer time, just as water is a means of purification in all three circumstances. There is no legally significant difference between these cases, except when one becomes able to use water. Whoever declares dry ablution invalid when the prayer time ends has therefore contradicted what the evidence entails.

Moreover, the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—made this a general concession for his community. He did not distinguish between performing dry ablution with the intention of offering an obligatory or voluntary prayer, or that particular prayer rather than another, just as he made no such distinction concerning ablution with water. The two must therefore be treated alike. There is disagreement concerning ablution with water before the prayer time begins, but the disagreement concerning dry ablution is better known.

Since the authentic Sunnah establishes that one of these two forms of purification is permissible before the prayer time begins, the same applies to the other. In either case, the person has purified himself by doing what Allah commanded. For this reason, the great majority of scholars permit someone who has performed ablution or a full ritual bath to pray behind someone who has performed dry ablution. This is what ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs did, and the Prophet—may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace—approved it. Ibn ʿAbbās likewise had intercourse with a slave woman of his and then led his companions in prayer after performing dry ablution. This is the position of the four imams, as well as that of Abū