Chapter: Bathing for the Muḥrim (pilgrim in iḥrām)

The First Ḥadīth

ʿAbdullāh ibn Hunayn relates that ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both) and al-Miswar ibn Makhramah (may Allah be pleased with him) differed at al-Abwā’. Ibn ʿAbbās said, “The muḥrim may wash his head,” whereas al-Miswar said, “The muḥrim must not wash his head.”

He continues: Ibn ʿAbbās then sent me to Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī to enquire. I found Abū Ayyūb bathing between the two uprights (al-qarnān) while screened by a cloth. I greeted him with salām and he asked, “Who is that?” I replied, “I am ʿAbdullāh ibn Hunayn; Ibn ʿAbbās has sent me to ask you how the Messenger of Allah ﷺ washed his head while in iḥrām.”

Abū Ayyūb placed his hand on the cloth and lowered it until his head was visible. Then he said to a man beside him, “Pour,” and the man poured water over his head. Abū Ayyūb moved his head with both hands, running them forward and back, and said, “This is how I saw him ﷺ do it.”

In another wording, al-Miswar said to Ibn ʿAbbās, “After this I shall never dispute with you again.”

Definitions
• al-Qarnān: the two posts into which the cross-beam that holds the well’s pulley is fastened.

Unfamiliar terms
• al-Abwā’: a place between Mecca and Medina, approximately three kilometres east of the village of Mastūrah; the flood-course of al-Abwā’ and Mastūrah is one and the same, and the site is still known by this name today.
• al-Qarnān: the dual of qarn (“horn”); the two upright timbers at the head of the well-frame between which a beam is fitted to suspend the pulley, or over which the rope is drawn when no pulley is present. In Najd today they are called “al-qāmah.”
• ṭaṭaʾahu: he lowered the cloth so the questioner could see his head.
• umārīk: I argue or dispute with you.

Overall meaning
ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās and al-Miswar ibn Makhramah disagreed over whether a muḥrim may wash his head. Al-Miswar prohibited it, fearing that hairs might fall out and because bathing entails a degree of comfort, whereas the muḥrim should remain dishevelled and dusty. Ibn ʿAbbās deemed it permissible, adhering to the basic legal presumption of allowance unless evidence dictates otherwise—true jurisprudence. They therefore dispatched ʿAbdullāh ibn Hunayn to Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī while they were on the road to Mecca to ask him. By Allah’s facilitation, intended to clarify His rulings for His servants, Ibn Hunayn found Abū Ayyūb bathing at the mouth of a well,