any basis. It is therefore understood that unavoidable contact with a substance is excused. It is well known that semen involuntarily soils people’s bodies, clothes, and bedding more frequently than cats lap from their vessels. Among bodily discharges, it is thus a constant presence. Indeed, a person may be able to prevent saliva and mucus from soiling his clothes, yet cannot avoid semen resulting from wet dreams and intercourse. This evident hardship requires that it be considered pure, even if grounds for declaring it impure were present. Do you not see that the Lawgiver has granted a concession concerning ordinary bodily impurities, allowing solid materials to suffice for cleansing? Yet requiring cleansing with water when it is available is less burdensome than requiring clothes to be washed free of semen, especially in winter, for a poor person or someone who has only one garment.

If it is objected:

Several arguments establish that semen is impure. The first is the report narrated from ‘Ammār ibn Yāsir, from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—that he said:

“A garment is washed only on account of urine, faeces, semen, and vomit.”

This was narrated by Ibn ‘Adī. The hadith of ‘Ā’ishah stating that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—used to wash it has already been cited.

The second argument:

It is a discharge that necessitates purification from both physical and ritual impurity; it is therefore impure, like urine and menstrual blood. This is because the requirement of purification from impurity indicates that it is