Types of Water

Ruling on types of water

Wuḍūʾ is permitted with:

1. Rainwater
2. Water from valleys
3. Spring water
4. Well water
5. Sea water

If a pure substance is mixed with one of these waters such that only one of its qualities changes, wuḍūʾ with it remains permitted.

Wuḍūʾ is not permitted with water that has been:

1. Cooked
2. Squeezed out from a tree or fruit
3. Mixed with something impermissible for wuḍūʾ in greater quantity than the pure water. For instance, two raṭl¹ of used water (impermissible) mixed with one raṭl of rainwater.

Wuḍūʾ is not permitted with still water in which there is najis (impurity), unless the body of water is large (there is ikhtilāf on the exact threshold, but the figure given is roughly ten by ten) and shows no trace of najāsah; in such a case it takes the ruling of flowing water. Traces of najāsah are identified by taste, colour or smell.

The death of animals without flowing blood (the fly, the wasp, the scorpion, the fish, the frog) does not render the water impure.

Māʾ mustaʿmal (used water), that is, water already used in drawing near to Allāh (such as in wuḍūʾ for reciting the Qurʾān) or in the removal of impurities, may not be used for wuḍūʾ. Māʾ mustaʿmal is itself pure, but it does not purify.

Every tanned leather is pure, save the leather of pigs and of humans.

The hair and bones of humans and of the dead are pure.

Footnotes

1. A unit of measurement. ↩