or with a boy or a man will be raised on the Day of Resurrection more foul-smelling than a carcass, distressing people with his stench until Allah casts him into the Fire of Hell. Allah will render his deeds worthless and accept from him neither payment nor compensation. He will be placed in a chest of fire, which will be nailed shut over him with iron nails that pierce his face and body.’”

Abū Hurayrah said: “This applies to someone who has not repented.” For whoever refrains from sodomy purifies himself, as the Quran indicates. Whoever practises it, therefore, has not purified himself of it and is thus defiled, since impurity is the opposite of purity. Impurity, however, has different forms, with different rulings.

This is where some jurists have erred. When they saw that the Quran requires someone in a state of major ritual impurity to purify himself, in Allah’s words:

“If you are in a state of major ritual impurity, then purify yourselves,”

they said: “A person in a state of major ritual impurity must therefore be impure.” Yet an authentic hadith from Abū Hurayrah establishes that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“A believer does not become impure.”

He said this when Abū Hurayrah slipped away from him because he was in a state of major ritual impurity and felt reluctant to sit with him. The impurity that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, denied here was impurity requiring purification with water, which Abū Hurayrah had thought affected him.

Major ritual impurity prevents the angels from entering a house containing someone in that state. Ahmad said: “If someone in a state of major ritual impurity puts his hand into a small quantity of water, he renders the water impure.” Some of his followers thought he meant physical impurity, whereas he meant impurity in a legal sense. A derivative cannot have a stronger ruling than its source, nor can water be subject to a more severe ruling than the body. At most, the same impediment affecting the body can affect the water. A person’s bodily state of major ritual impurity prevents him from praying; likewise, the water remains pure but cannot be used for ablution for prayer.