The first view is that these liquids are subject to the same ruling as water. This is the view of al-Zuhrī and other early scholars, and one of the two positions reported from Ahmad. In some passages, it is also cited as a position reported from Mālik. This is also the underlying principle of Abū Hanīfah’s view, since he reasoned about water by analogy with other liquids.

The second view is that liquids become impure when an impurity falls into them, unlike water, for which a distinction is made between small and large quantities. This is the position of al-Shāfi‘ī and the other position reported from Mālik and Ahmad.

There is also a third view, reported from Ahmad, which distinguishes between aqueous liquids and other liquids: date vinegar is treated like water, whereas grape vinegar is not.

According to the first view, if the quantity of oil is large—for example, two qullahs in volume—it does not become impure unless its properties change. Ahmad explicitly stated this concerning a dog that lapped from a large quantity of oil, saying, “It does not become impure.”

If the quantity of liquid is small, the ruling depends on the previously mentioned disagreement concerning a small quantity of water. Those who hold that a small quantity becomes impure only if its properties change apply the same ruling to oil and other liquids. This was the ruling given by al-Zuhrī when he was asked about a mouse or another animal dying in clarified butter or other fats. He said:

“It should be removed, along with what is near it, and the rest may be eaten, whether the quantity is small or large, and whether it is solid or liquid.”

Al-Bukhārī related this from him in his Sahīh for a reason we shall explain, Allah willing.