Water is pure and nothing can make it impure except if an impurity is added which changes its smell, taste or colour: Purification and the types of water.

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In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy

Book of Purification (Bulūgh Al-Marām of Al-Hāfidh Ibn Hajr)

Chapter on the Types of Water

(no. 2)

وَعَنْ أَبِي سَعِيدٍ الْخُدْرِيِّ ‏- رضى الله عنه ‏- قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اَللَّهِ ‏- صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏- إِنَّ اَلْمَاءَ طَهُورٌ لَا يُنَجِّسُهُ شَيْءٌ
أَخْرَجَهُ اَلثَّلَاثَةُ‏ وَصَحَّحَهُ أَحْمَدُ

Abu Sa’īd Al-Khudrī (radiyallāhu ‘anhu) narrated that Allah’s Messenger (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) said, “Water is pure and nothing can make it impure.”1Reported by the three books of Sunan, and graded saheeh by Ahmad, (and graded saheeh by Shaikh Al-Albāni)

Benefits

  1. Abu Sa’īd Al-Khudrī (radiyallāhu ‘anhu) is Sa’d Ibn Mālik Al-Ansāri. He died in 74 AH at the age of 86.
  2. This hadeeth is refered to as “the hadeeth of the well of Budā’ah”.
  3. Water remains pure so long as nothing impure is added to it that would change one of its three characteristics: Smell, taste and colour. It does not matter how large or small the amount of water is ― and that was the view of Mālik and the Dhāhiriyyah. As-San’ānī stated in As-Subulus-Salām that there is no evidence to prove that a distinction needs to made between a large amount or a small amount of water. And this was the view of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim. The jurists among the Hanifies and Shāfi’ies held the view that if the water was a small amount, then any amount of added impurity would harm it; but if the water was a large amount, then it would not be harmed by an impurity that fell into it so long as one of the characteristics (smell, taste and colour) is not altered due to it.

Footnotes:

  • 1
    Reported by the three books of Sunan, and graded saheeh by Ahmad, (and graded saheeh by Shaikh Al-Albāni)

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