into your hands, clothed in flesh; and every dropping shall be fodder for your animals.’ The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: ‘So do not cleanse yourselves with either of them, for they are provisions for your brothers.’”

Sahīh al-Bukhārī and other collections relate from Abū Hurayrah:

“I used to accompany the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, carrying a small water vessel for his ablution and personal needs. As I was following him with it, he asked, ‘Who is that?’ I replied, ‘Abū Hurayrah.’ He said, ‘Find me some stones to cleanse myself with, but do not bring me a bone or a dropping.’ I brought him some stones, carrying them in the hem of my garment, and placed them beside him. Then I withdrew. When he had finished, I walked with him and asked, ‘Why not bones and droppings?’ He replied, ‘They are food for the jinn. A delegation of the jinn of Nasībīn—and excellent jinn they were—came to me and asked me for provisions. So I prayed to Allah that they would never pass a bone or a dropping without finding food on it.’”

By forbidding cleansing oneself with anything that spoils the food of the jinn or the fodder of their animals, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, indicated that spoiling human food or the fodder of their animals is forbidden with even greater reason. Yet people’s innate disposition plainly makes them dislike and recoil from the latter, unlike using bones and droppings, since the defilement of the jinn’s food is not apparent to them. Hence the numerous authentic hadiths prohibiting it.

These authentic hadiths establish that he addressed the jinn and they addressed him, that he recited the Quran to them, and that they asked him for provisions.

It is also established in the two Sahīh collections that Ibn ‘Abbās used to say: “The Prophet